The movement is called “Reclaim Wisconsin” and it’s ground zero of the labor movement. Only one short year ago – Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) began a crusade against unions despite not having run on that agenda. He claimed breaking the backs of unions was necessary for the state to fix it’s budget problems; of course – he didn’t remember to mention that he passed tax cuts that would actually add to the deficit by an additional $117 million over two years. So – his plan was simply to break up unions since unions tend to favor the Democratic party; in short – he used the power of his office to push through an agenda that was based on his own political interests…not the interests of the people of Wisconsin.
Well – Karma says hi. Now – he’s in the fight of his life as over 1 million Wisconsinites have signed a petition to remove Governor Walker from office. He is one of the most unpopular Governors in the country and is tentatively set for June 12th along with 4 other GOP state senators. He and the Republican party have gone out of their way to restrict voter rights within the past 12 months…throwing every barrier that they could think of to prevent likely Democratic voters from being able to participate in the recall election. Thankfully – a Dane County judge has put a temporary injunction on the law citing it as unconstitutional. Republicans even tried to gerrymander voting districts to ensure they had a huge electoral advantage regardless of the Democratic turnout; thankfully – federal judges ruled that the maps that Republicans presented would only disenfranchise voters and they are required to resubmit new maps.
John Nichols from The Nation reports:
Whatever the actual number, there was no question that the crowd filling the great square around the Capitol was the largest to gather since the mass mobilizations of February and March 2011. The protests of last year drew the attention of the nation—and the world—and helped to encourage pushbacks against anti-labor legislation in Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Arizona and other states. They featured an ongoing peaceful occupation of the state Capitol that served as one of many inspirations for the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The Milwaukee Wisconsin Sentinel Journal has a great photo gallery from Saturday’s protests.
2 Comments
I know it’s logical to say that his intention was to break the unions because they support the democrats, but more likely he is a republican for the purpose of busting unions. Busting unions is the most important step in making it easy for the 1% to farm us like chickens. If you think of our labor as eggs that we produce every day, and dismantling the social safety net as the stew pot waiting for low producers, you can explain just about every republican policy. Sure, they do other things to pick up the votes of the racists, the homophobes, the religious fanatics, and other forms of frightened ignorance, but that is not their primary motivation. The 1% invest heavily in the GOP and weasels like Mr. Walker because they are business men with an eye on accumulating wealth, and greater control over the “livestock”.
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