Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Shifting Political Power: From Citizens United to Wisconsin
Let’s be clear: Governor Scott Walker’s proposed cuts are not about balancing the state budget. It’s a power play aimed at cutting the heart out of what remains of the once vibrant labor movement. 
A war waged against unionized workers ultimately harms all workers, and the overt strategy to squelch collective bargaining exposes the deep resentment that monied interests hold towards worker rights everywhere.
The public sector unions in Wisconsin have already agreed to make sacrifices, including significant wage cuts and increased contributions to the pension fund. But these economic concessions are not enough for Governor Walker. That’s because his true goal is to permanently cripple the unions by defunding their organizational base and stripping away their right to collective bargaining.
Sadly, Wisconsin is just one of many front lines in this fight. In the wake of the November elections, anti-union measures are on the move in Ohio, Indiana, and elsewhere.
To understand the true significance of this assault on unions, one must remember that unions do far more than negotiate benefits for its own workers. Unions have fought to strengthen public policies that benefit all Americans, both unionized and non-unionized. We have unions to thank for the weekend and the 40-hour workweek. More recently, unions fought to strengthen minimum wage laws, worker safety protections, and public safety nets. And unions, much to the dismay of corporate power brokers, help provide a powerful mechanism for voter turnout that keeps our democracy strong.
Unions have long understood that “speaking truth to power” is not enough. It takes a strong, organized movement to affect real change in our society. That has become especially important in the face of rising corporate power and, more recently, the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. Today, unions represent one of the few organized forces providing a counterbalance to the role of corporate money and power in our democracy. As the fight to limit corporate power through campaign finance reform and other such policies heats up, unions will undoubtedly play a crucial role.
From the 1940s through the mid-1970s, Americans saw an unprecedented period of economic growth, and more importantly, a period when income growth was shared proportionally across all major income groups. This was not an accident or a force of nature. It was the result of a deliberate set of public policies—including a highly progressive tax system, strong worker protections, and large-scale public investments in our shared infrastructure to name a few. But these laws didn’t just magically appear. They were created in part through the political organizing of strong, well-organized unions at a time when one out of three American workers were unionized.
Unions have long understood that “speaking truth to power” is not enough. It takes a strong, organized movement to affect real change in our society.
Beginning in the 1970s, well-heeled corporations began to organize and work to undo these earlier labor victories. In their new book “Winner-Take-All Politics,” Pierson and Hacker document this dramatic power shift. In 1968, only 100 corporations had public affairs offices in Washington. That grew to 500 by 1978. Only 175 firms had registered lobbyist in 1971. That grew to 2,500 by 1982. Mirroring this rise of corporate power was the realignment and dramatic growth of the Chamber and the National Federation of Independent Businesses as a powerful political force.
As corporate influence was on the rise, the once powerful labor unions that helped grow America’s strong middle class were under attack. In some cases, this was a frontal assault as powerful forces worked to undo union victories. In other cases, it was a dodge as corporations moved their operations to anti-union states, cutting the political legs out from under the unions.
As this fierce class war has waged on for the past 30 years, hard-working Americans have consistently been on the losing end. Many progressives point to Reagan as the impetus for this power shift, but Reagan was simply riding a tidal wave of corporate power that was laid in the decade before he took office. To the victor go the spoils indeed. Since this great power shift has taken place, we’ve seen tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, and the gutting of the public sector with profound implications for our society. Income inequality is now at its highest level since 1928, just before the Great Depression.
After nearly four decades of attack, only about 12 percent of American workers are now unionized. In the public sector however, the unionization rate remains at 36 percent. In fact, over half of all unionized workers are public sector employees today. This brings us full circle back to Wisconsin. As corporate influence continues to grow, Governor Walker is seeking to limit the power of working people by removing one of the most powerful tools in our cache: unions and their organizing power. If he succeeds, it will be deeply troubling for the health of our democracy.
If we as a nation are serious about renewing America’s commitment to a strong and vibrant middle class, we must look to reform the political landscape that created the winner-take-all economy. As the nation’s eyes remain on Wisconsin, it is in each or our interests—unionized and non-unionized, private sector and public sector workers—to stand in solidarity with our fellow Americans on the front lines in Wisconsin. The health of our democracy depends on it.
18 Comments so far
Show All==Unions have long understood that “speaking truth to power” is not enough. It takes a strong, organized movement to affect real change in our society.==
This is why it was once recommended that Greyhound buses have tail gunners. This is why we can't find Jimmy Hoffa, who reposes in solidarity with other missing bodies.
Don't take me wrong. I'd like to see everyone in the West Wing =organize= and speak truth to power by telling the President he's living in some parallel universe.
Trylon
The most extreme and backward elements of the ruling elite in AmeriKKKa have decimated the unions in a withering 30-year-old attack that started with Ronnie Raygun. This latest attack led by the Koch brothers and their puppet Republican Gov. Scott Walker is a dress rehearsal for a crackdown on the middle class that will eventually be from "sea to shining sea."
After he closed the capitol building in Madison on Sunday night, reports have emerged that Walker ordered the windows welded shut. Yesterday morning he ordered that only select individuals who have "business" in the capitol building be allowed in. Finally, he has employed the use of police dogs to intimidate protesters The dogs, of course, are reminiscent of other dark eras in AmeriKKKan history (i.e. the civil rignts movement of the '50s and '60s and more recently in the gulags arising from Middle East wars).
If the attack on workers' rights is successful in Madison, repression of civil and human rights will accelerate. General strikes, boycotts and non-violent resistance are workers' tools to defeat the fascist element in AmeriKKKa.
God damn AmeriKKKa!
what is sad about amerika is that there are so many illiterate and uneducated people, so many functionally illiterate grads of the rockefeller non-education system who wouldn't know their best interests if it waltzed up to them with pink tights and kicked them in the ass. a great tribute to the rockefeller edcuation system
that system has cultivated a culture of hatred and self-interest that has overcome our sense of common purpose - we are all on our own
as the writer states - unions are about organizing and bringing some size forward to deal with the hugeness of the corporations for whom they toil. the bring humanity to the workplace and make life better for everyone in the society
the controlled corporate media pisses on about cadillac benefits and such of the unions - when they are the ones who have all the cash and benefits - oh the irony
the goons who are the talking heads on tv are nwo shills - they have no idea what they are talking about they just ooze the shit they are told to ooze
that's what passes for political dialogue in fascist amerika
these ignorant folk in the tea party and their buddies have lost the battle to climb any higher and just would like to see everyone dragged down to where they are at
its alright ma (i'm only bleeding)
While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he’s in
bob dylan
This assault on Unions wouldn't have happened if the people of Wisconsin hadn't elected Scott Walker in the first place. The problem is the author here 'gets it' but most Americans don't. Now that the Republicans have successfully eliminated any record of labor movements and civil rights from our school textbooks, the ignorance is sure to expand. Eventually I can see a revolution similar to what we are witnessing in the Middle East today, but not until we drift further into abject poverty. In the meantime poor Americans will continue to vote against their own economic interests because they're upset that they don't have a union job, middle class lifestyle or any hope for a better future.
The assault on Unions has been going on and would go on with or without Walker.
You are blaming the working class people, and trying to shoehorn this struggle back into the context of partisan electoral politics.
Elections do not cause social and political change, they merely reflect social and political change, at best. All change has always cmne from powerful militant groups outside of the partisan electoral process.
"If we as a nation are serious about renewing America’s commitment to a strong and vibrant middle class, we must look to reform the political landscape that created the winner-take-all economy." But , obviously were not committed to this are we? The Reich Wing has long ago set us on a course that ends the Middle Class as a political and cultural force in America.
Mitch Daniels seems to be a current hit with the Media. They portray him as a Moderate Republican, in contrast to the Wisconsin Governor. I was a Public Employee in Indiana for 18 years prior to my job being privatized. Mitch Daniels was elected and the first thing he did was to kill the unions for public employees. He then got rid of Caseworkers for the unemployment offices and gave contracts to ACS to run unemployment call centers instead. Then, after trying to privatize public highways, he privatized the Federal program of food stamps and privatized medicaid by giving the contract for Call Centers to IBM/ACS. Only Federal Government oversight of the food stamp program halted the privatization. Benefits would and are taking months to be approved by the Call Centers and private workers. Since the privatization was halted in mid-roll out, half of Indiana still has county caseworkers and half has only Call Centers. Indiana has been fined 1.2 million yet the Governor has not called back the caseworkers in the privatized counties like he said he would when those counties were privatized. So Indiana is in limbo and no media pundit has pointed this out. So sad to make Mitch out a Moderate when he was leading the republican pack. He also is trying to undermine public education by taking taxpayer money and diverting it from the public schools to vouchers where that taxpayer money can be given to religious schools or Charter schools. Yet no one exposes his basic actions that are anti-union and anti-public education.
Union people act surprised that Scott Walker would try and take away their bargaining rights. It is reported that many Union households voted for Walker, along with the majority of Wisconsin voters. Polling tells us that many of those voters would not vote the same today.
Maybe it is Wisconsin's education system, but what ever the reason, Union people were voting for a Republican, and then those same people are upset when that Republican acts like a Republican.
Something is terribly wrong with the intelligence level of many voters in Wisconsin
Is it a coincidence that the unions became stronger when the communist block
was strong and started to decline with the decline of the communist block.
Perhaps the social contract that the elites agreed to was influenced by their threat perception from the communist block. If the workers in the capitalist west were seen as worse off than the communist "east" then it would have called the whole capitalist system into question in the eyes of the workers in the west. Now there is no alternative on the horizon. Things are eerily moving as predicted by Marx/Engels.
If it happens as he predicted, there is more misery to come. This may be just the beginning of the decimation of unions and workers rights in general.
I doubt if the fall of the USSR had anything to do with it, but who knows. Though union membership has been in decline in the past couple of decades, the one exception is government unions. After the "Patriot act" under W, government employees flocked to unions to find support. It was Bush/Cheney/Rummy's attempt to hire/fire promote/demote at will that made a lot of gov. employees WANT union protection. MOST government employees make far less than civilian workers in the same trade. The difference comes in the benifit packages, which were negotiated and agreed upon as pre conditions of employment. Are there some highly paid government employees in big cities like Washington, NY, SF? you bet, but again, their base salary is usually lower, but location pay adds up.
The "capitalist system" if not attinuated by unions will lead to total fascism (IMHO).
It's not "the beginning of the decimation of unions and workers' rights," it's the beginning of what the Owners and Operators had hoped would be the end game. They have never accepted, always hated all the hard won rights the labor movement has been able to achieve: limitations on the work day, living wages, workplace safety rules, laws against child labor, paid time off, social security, secure pensions. We working folks had been lulled into the (now disproved) belief that this was settled law, that the need for a labor movement had passed. But the recent spate of Republican victories emboldened to believe that now was the time to return working people to serf status.
The amount of protest had taken them by surprise but has not yet rattled their resolve. Can the public employee protest be sustained? The fate of many if not most of us hangs uneasily in the balance .
Walker is one of the new "point men" for a campaign that is intent uoon rolling back the benefits won over previous centuries! The attack is not just on unions, consider the following as linked incentives:
1. There is an attack on female reproductive freedom that's seen its ante upped thanks to so many right wing fanatics obtaining power.
2. There is an attack on the right to privacy as seen in a number of government agencies spying on citizens.
3. There is an insidious war on nature, as seen in scant investment in green technology or non-fossil fuels, while meaningful preparations for global climate change are entirely neglected.
4. There is a war on children as seen in cuts to education, added to the robotic standardized test model used to replace viable reflections of GENUINE learning trends.
5. There is an attack on Americans' health as seen in allowing an amoral corporation (war criminals!) like Monsanto to own vast percentages of dietary seed-stocks while dangerously melding these biological treasures with chemical agents (alleged to stop weeds and/or enhance harvests).
6. There is a war on the poor as seen in the smear against Acorn; one so effective that it has effectively dismantled that organization.
7. There is a war on truth as seen in the media pundits calling for Julian Assange's head, while arguing to silence whistleblowers and persons of conscience everywhere.
8. There is a war on sanity as seen in policy decisions that stink so badly, their trails ascend to the very heavens!
Please feel free to add to this list. And by the way, my relating these items is not intended to diminish the impact of the corporate quest to anesthetize unions... it's to show that the attacks (along with hate & smear campaigns) launched by deadly elites are aimed at undermining EVERY aspect of our lives. These uber:wealthy folks see themselves as the new pharaohs and the rest of humanity its slaves.
There are so many attacks, and so much money backing each one of them, that decent people are facing a veritable many-headed Hydra. Therefore we may appear divided as our efforts towards peace, justice, and environmental sustainability, and fair wages call for struggles on many fronts.
To take down the corporate behemoths is probably item #1. Fortunately, this process is gaining momentum ALL OVER the world.
Why do union workers vote for conservatives that want to destroy unions?
It's not just "conservatives'. Under Clinton thousands of jobs were sent off shore and American workers lost ground. MSM and Party Politicians pay lip service to the public, then turn around and actually advise companies how to make their profits look as if to be made in other countries.
Paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin, either we all hang together or we'll hang seperately. Hanging seperately as in a land where the minimum wage (if there is such a thing) is five doillar an hour, no public schools, health insurance for most Americans that doesn't come close to covering actual costs, fixed benefit social security and Medicare converted to 401K type plans, which blow one way or another in the wind of Wall Street chicanery. Meanwhile, the CEOs of corporate-USA will tell us that we have only ourselves to blame for our miserable fate - "Sorry, I feel your pain but don't expect the government to help. You just didn't have what it takes." And the answer? Revolution, that's what. Starting today!
I think you're right ... REVOLUTION is the only thing that will get through their thick ignorant skulls.
Zeitgeist - tremendous video production surveying seminal precepts in western thought and perspective, how they arose, interact and distort fundamental nature and balances and result in system disorder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w
We need a _national_ general strike, not just by union workers, but ALL workers.
Shut this country down for one or two days ... nobody works, nobody buys anything ... and show the assholes at the top who _actually_ creates their wealth.
It sure as hell isn't them.