In Wisconsin we stand
Right now, the people of Wisconsin are voting on whether or not to sack their governor. Scott Walker is one of only three people in US history to face the stress of a gubernatorial recall vote. And boy does he deserve it.
The vote isn’t just historic because it is rare. It is historic because it will mark a line in the sand for the post-2008 neoliberal revolution. Since the financial collapse, right wing governments across the western world have taken the opportunity to dismantle the last vestiges of the social democratic consensus in a way they used only to imagine in their most exited dreams.
In the UK, we are seeing vast cuts to public funding, curbs to protections to workers and privatisation of almost everything. The story is the same across Europe. In Montreal, thousands are rallying against tuition fee rises.
But the testbed for the radical extreme of the brand of economics dreamt up in the economics department of the University of Chicago is in its own region. In Michigan, and over the lake in Wisconsin, Republican governors Rick Snyder and Scott Walker respectively have been attempting an assault on democracy and trade unions perhaps more extreme than any ever seen before. In Wisconsin, this meant essentially ending all collective bargaining rights of public sector unions in a measure Walker was caught on tape as typifying his strategy of ‘divide and rule’.
We can bet our soon-to-be-privatised health insurance that a generation of young Tories obsessed with everything stars and stripes is keeping a careful eye.
The response to the radical assault on democracy and union rights in both states was extraordinary. Both saw mass occupations of their State Capitol buildings. In Wisconsin, Democratic state senators realised that they didn’t have the votes to prevent the legislation from passing. But they could stop the meetings from being quorate – if they fled the state. And so that’s what they did – with state police out hunting for them, attempting to forcibly return them.
Once the legislation finally passed, grassroots organisers started a campaign to sack those who had pushed it through. Last year, they successfully got two Republican State Senators recalled. But they had to bide their time for the big fish, as he hadn’t been in office for a full year yet. Once he had, they rapidly gathered more than 900,000 signatures – nearly one in five people in the state calling for Scott Walker to be sacked for ending the collective bargaining rights of Wisconsin’s trades unions.
Which brings us to today – the vote. Throughout this process, Walker has become as much a poster boy for the right as he is a villain for the left – he is delivering what most have only dreamt of. And so they are throwing vast amounts of cash at his campaign. If the unions can turn out enough people today, they will win. If they can’t Walker’s dollars will replicate Romney’s primary win, and secure victory down the barrel of TV attack ads.
Lots of people are writing about what this says about Obamas vs Romney in November. But it is important to realise what this means to the rest of the world. If Scott Walker can wipe out the unions in his state with one blow, and then buy the recall election with the money of those bosses who benefit from the death of unions then we all have much to fear. If the organisers of Wisconsin have ensured that enough people turned out to sack the man who is stripping them of the victories of their parents, then perhaps the shock troopers of neo-liberalism will pause for a second.
So, good luck to the trade unions and the organisers of Wisconsin – you are fighting for us all.
Many Thanks, Gary. The Declaration of Arbroath certainly seems fitting; love your suggestion. I read the Declaration every year on Tartan Day. When I’m feeling down politically, I also like to remind myself that despite our past struggles we can still hear bagpipes all around the world today! I’ll be following your path to the referendum with keen interest. Slainte!
Cee,
In 1320, the followers of Robert the Bruce gathered at Arbroath Abbey and put their seals to a rebel yell of Scottish independence. Known as the Declaration of Arborath, it is Scotland’s most famous historic document and was a model for Jefferson’s Declaration Of Independence.
The English thought they could drive that spirit out of us, make us forget. In the 700 years since that day they’ve destroyed our clans, driven us off the land, banned tartan, banned our languages, invaded us several times, routinely pillaged our industries, and at one point tried to persuade us the name of our country was North Britain.
Like the servants of corporate America passing union-busting laws they hoped we would see the writing on the wall and just give up, come to see the world their way because it was the path of least resistance. But we’re two years from a referendum on independence because even though they’ve been trying for seven hundred years, they can’t kill an idea.
I suggest we substitute “corporate rule” for “English rule” and read the Declaration’s most famous line:
As long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.
Thank you both for your comments – very interesting. My only comment, really, is to say that the struggle continues, always…
As a Wisconsinite and a Scottish-American, thanks for covering our story. Another few details to provide re the State Senators leaving WI to prevent the vote and the level of corruption in the Governor’s admin:
1) Jeff Fitzgerald is Majority Leader for the WI Assembly. The first time he passed the wretched budget bill, he had all the Republicans start voting 5 mins BEFORE the time he had told the Democrats to return from a caucus mtg where they were drafting amendments (very dramatic youtube videoclips of Peter Barca, minority leader, shaming him into cancelling the vote and re-opening the debate for amendments) They adjourned and then Jeff rammed the bill thru a different day after so abruptly cutting off discussion that not even all the Republicans got their votes in. (Every single Democratic amendment was shot down unanimously by lock step Republicans.) Not illegal but unethical and against the Assembly rules.
2) Scott Fitzgerald is the Speaker of the Senate. After weeks of insisting that the collective bargaining rights HAD to be tied to the budget bc it was for financial savings, he appears on Fox TV and tells the reporter that the real reason they are stripping collective bargaining rights is to kill the unions so President Obama won’t win WI in his re-election bid. Then he goes on to separate the collective bargaining from the financial part of the budget and rams it thru without proper public meeting notice. That was illegal and it was challenged in court.
3)Stephen Fitzgerald, daddy to the brothers controlling the Legislative branch, gets appointed by Walker to be head of the State Troopers. Scott Fitzgerald was fit to be tied that the Democratic Senators left the state to filibuster the vote. So he asked his daddy to dispatch troopers to bring them back – but he and his staff clearly knew that they had no legal authority to deploy the troops or to pursue the Senators, and they deployed them anyway. Which is illegal. Such is the arrogance and blatant disregard for state laws.
And with tonite’s bought election, such is the arrogance and blatant disregard for American democracy.
Bright Green – do you have any encouraging quotes from Scotland’s rich and passionate history to keep us fighting strong tomorrow?
Great piece, just one thing; he said ‘divide and conquer’ not ‘divide and rule’. Understand, it isn’t enough for him to just run things, he wants to destroy all who disagree with him, as well. This was evidenced in a recently released email his aide sent to a conservative newspaper asking them to attack Senator Dale Shultz, a Republican who dared to vote against him on a disastrous mining bill (Schultz’s vote killed it. It was the deciding vote).
So you know, the email was released as part of the terms of immunity. His closest aide is cooperating in exchange for immunity in an FBI investigation. Yes, our Governor is under suspicion for corruption. Any day we expect he will be indicted.
Anyway, thank you for shedding light on our battle in Wisconsin!