Sunday, March 6, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Showdown in Wisconsin: Defending Democracy
a commentary by John Weeks, University of London
Defending democracy in Madison, Wisconsin.
Until recently known as the home of whole food co-ops and alternative life styles, Madison, Wisconsin is today the key battle field in a class war declared unilaterally by capital. Formally at stake in the battle of Madison are the rights of public sector employees to bargain collectively. In practice the battle is joined over the basic human right of freedom of association, which lies at the heart of a democratic society. It is not hyperbole to describe the struggle in the snows of Madison to be a battle in US capital's counter-revolution against democracy.
To understand the full significance of the confrontation in Madison it must be placed in historical context. A progressive alliance of farmers and workers in Wisconsin produced Robert Marion La Follette (Fighting Bob), who was probably the most leftwing politician elected to major office in the United States. Elected to the US House of Representatives, governor of the state, and US senator, La Follette was a Republican when it remain partly the party of Lincoln.
By World War I he was too progressive for either major party. In 1924, the year before he died, La Follette formed his own party, the Progressives. He won seventeen percent of the national popular vote for President, running as an uncompromising enemy of corporate power. If 100 years later the Republicans generated a defection to a new party, it would be neo-fascist (as opposed to the proto-fascism of what would remain). 
Fighting Bob La Follette
Fighting Bob's sons Philip (governor in the 1930s) and Robert Jr ("Young Bob", US Senator 1925-1946) formed the Wisconsin Progressive Party that briefly controlled state politics. Wisconsin was a state deeply divided between progressive labor and reactionary capital. In a bitter electoral defeat of progressive ideals, Young Bob lost the 1946 Republican primary to Joseph McCarthy (by 5000 votes). McCarthy went on to defeat the Democrat in the general election and become perhaps the most venal US politician of the first half of the twentieth century.
The current governor leading the assault on human rights in Wisconsin, Scott Walker, rests comfortably in the McCarthy tradition. To give credit where it is due, Walker has considerably exceed McCarthy's assault on human rights. While McCarthy for the most part restricted himself to alleged communists and the alleged "fellow travelers" of those alleged communists, the neo-venal Walker has broadened the assault to the population as a whole (except, of course, capital and its agents).
In the state elections of 2010, those who voted in Wisconsin brought a Republican majority to both branches of the legislature, as well as the governor. This would be no changing of the guard. With the state's budget deficit as an excuse, Walker launched a program of savage cuts. Had he done no more than this, he would have remained as singularly undistinguished as he certainly is. He would have been lost in a crowd of similarly reactionary politicians throughout the western world, a George Osborne with a mid-west accent.
Walker of Wisconsin is no commonplace reactionary. He aspires to a far baser goal than budget cuts: a frontal assault on the right of people to associate. Freedom of association is the right of individuals to collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests. While the phrase "freedom of association" does not appear in the US constitution, federal and state courts interpreted the first amendment to include it (the amendment specifies freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and to petition the government).
Just thirteen months ago the US Supreme Court stuck a potentially fatal blow to the freedom of speech part of the first amendment. By a 5-4 ruling the court voided restrictions on the funding of political campaigns (Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission). This ruling granted capital unlimited freedom to propagandize and, by doing so, judicially reduced the rights of the rest of the population to freedom of speech. The unspeakable Walker has his eye on another first amendment prize, the freedom of people to "petition the government for redress of grievances" (last clause of the first amendment).
A growing number of people in the United States recognize the danger to democracy posed by Walker's bill to destroy pubic sector unions in Wisconsin. Over 70,000 are suffering snow and freezing temperatures to stop him. Credit should also go to the Democrats in the state senate who temporarily blocked legislative action (by preventing the senate from having a quorum).
At stake in Wisconsin are not wages and pensions (the union has conceded to Walker these issues). It is not a "labor issue". At stake is political democracy. Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans are militant extremists. With the overt support of big capital, they seek the destruction of democratic government. The demonstrators in Madison struggle against a reactionary vanguard that would implement its anti-democratic programme at the national level when it can seize the presidency.
For those of us living in the United Kingdom the struggle is at an earlier but no less dangerous stage. Only last month the prime minister David Cameron told members of parliament that he intended to act "to prevent militant trade unions holding Britain to ransom" (Daily Mail, 13 January 2011). Feeling its power on the rise, global capital is abandoning the pretense of democracy in favor of "order". A New Order. With an old name, fascism.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wisconsin Protests Governor Walker's "Budget Bill" 2-26-11
Saturday, February 26, 2011
A message from The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals
Let's call for Walker's resignation. I believe we need to show leadership in the current controversy which threatens the integrity of the state of Wisconsin, including state institutions such as the UW System. I believe that Scott Walker has demonstrated very clearly that he is unfit to continue to hold office in Wisconsin. This is why I suggest that we *join the call for his resignation*. State Senator Tim Carpenter is among the leaders who have already gone on record demanding that Walker resign. (This, of course, is only the beginning. When, in 1973, citizens and prominent Americans started demanding that Nixon resign, very few people thought that he would eventually be forced to do so). Many of us are building the foundation for a recall campaign, though official signature gathering can't begin until the fall. By the way, Walker has come under serious criticism from Madison's mayor and Madison's chief of police. Also, there is now an ongoing investigation of his conduct, in terms of possible violations of state ethics statutes.
In his first weeks in office Walker has already betrayed the citizens of Wisconsin, and I believe that he has violated the oath of office he took when he became governor (see the text of the oath - pasted below). Specifically, he has not "faithfully" and "impartially" discharged the duties of his office. On the contrary, he has broken faith with the citizens of Wisconsin by prostituting himself to the billionaire Koch brothers of Koch Industries, Inc., based in Wichita, Kansas (and, of course, other powerful, out-of-state corporate interests).
Walker has revealed his total lack of impartiality in the sense that he is clearly favoring out-of-state corporate special interests over the interests of Wisconsin citizens. Most "non-connected" Wisconsin citizens generally can't get through to speak to Walker, and yet he has proven to be eager and very available when calls come in from billionaire special interests, his sugar daddies. Do we have a "smoking gun" to prove this? Yes, we do! As many of you know, this is the "smoking gun": Ian Murphy of the website Buffalo Beast called, claiming to be Walker's sugar daddy David Koch, and Walker took the call and spoke with "David Koch" for approximately 20 minutes. The transcript of this conversation (full text available athttp://www.ibtimes.com/articles/115601/20110223/ian-murphy-david-koch-scott-walker-conversation-full-text-transcript.htm) reveals to be very Nixonesque, only worse. He is even more corrupt and, apparently, more open about his inclination toward dirty tricks, even if they would likely spark violence among a crowd of innocent, non-violent Wisconsites. Yes, he admits that he contemplated the option of sending hired goons ("troublemakers") into the demonstrations, and he decided not to for narrow political reasons, NOT AS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE (this comes through clearly in the transcript). He also reveals a devious plan to trick Senate Democrats into returning to Wisconsin with a phony offer to sit down and talk (again, check it out in the transcript).
Walker acknowledges that there are sweetheart elements (for Koch Industries) embedded in the bill and that Koch Industries has a "vested interest" in passing this bill (the most obvious thing is the provision that would allow an expedited selling off, probably at bargain basement prices, of our state power plants to commercial interests like Koch Industries). He acknowledges it by saying "That's just it." He also eagerly welcomes the idea of receiving a lucrative gift (a deluxe vacation gift paid for by his sugar daddy, "David Koch") as a reward for ramming through the bill that would strip Wisconsinites of their collective bargaining rights. Again, all these points come through clearly in the transcript. PLEASE READ THE TRANSCRIPT.
At the very least, we should be stimulating a more vigorous discussion of what's going on in Madison, especially what's going on in the corrupt Walker Administration.
We should also do whatever we can (calls, letters, faxes, emails, text messages) to get Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to put on his "comfortable shoes" and stand with us on the frontline of a labor campaign to protect our collective bargaining rights. The 2008 campaign footage of his specific promise to us on this point has been playing a lot lately on MSNBC. We should be asking: why won't Obama "step up" and show his solidarity? His brief comment a week ago to a network affiliate is NO SUBSTITUTE for a trip (NOW!) to Wisconsin to stand with us in this struggle.
Please come to Madison (the Capitol) on Saturday (tomorrow) and bring friends and family. It will be a big day in this whole campaign! Check into possibilities of busses from your communities as well as carpooling. We really need a big turnout!
And please pass this message along to your colleagues and friends and relatives, and let me and others now your opinion(s) on what's going on and what our strategy should be.
In solidarity,
Mark
meinsho@yahoo.com
608-574-4802 (cell)
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Oath of office:
The Actual Wisconsin Oath of Office Public Servants in Wisconsin are Required to Take
Wisconsin Statute EB-154 (6/86).
"I, (official's name), having been elected or appointed to the office of (title) swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of Wisconsin, and will FAITHFULLY and IMPARTIALLY discharge the duties of said office to the best of my ability. So help me God." (emphasis added)