Joined: 13 Sep 2006 Posts: 2568 Location: One breath from Glory
Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:15 pm Post subject: Madison, Wisconsin mass protests against union busting
Link _________________ JO911B.
"for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places " Eph.6 v 12
BREAKING: Wisconsin Police Have Joined Protest Inside State Capitol
February 26, 2011BJ MurphyLeave a commentGo to comments
by Jenn Breckenridge
February 25, 2011
From inside the Wisconsin State Capitol, RAN ally Ryan Harvey reports:
“Hundreds of cops have just marched into the Wisconsin state capitol building to protest the anti-Union bill, to massive applause. They now join up to 600 people who are inside.”
Ryan reported on his Facebook page earlier today:
“Police have just announced to the crowds inside the occupied State Capitol of Wisconsin: ‘We have been ordered by the legislature to kick you all out at 4:00 today. But we know what’s right from wrong. We will not be kicking anyone out, in fact, we will be sleeping here with you!’ Unreal.”
You can find more updates from Ryan Harvey on Twitter @ryanharveysongs and his blog Even If Your Voice Shakes.
UPDATE: This video says it all. It makes me proud of my neighbors. “Let me tell you Mr. Walker, this is not your house, this is all our house.”
Wisconsin Police Union Announces Solidarity with Occupation of State House
Link _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
This is another good news story. Effective non-violent action - seems to work everytime. I understand the Governor entered a resturant and the other diners started boo-ing him. He was then asked to leave a restaurant by the manager. Other people have said "He'll never have another meal in Madison again"
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:24 pm Post subject:
Michael Moore, maker of documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, yesterday went to Madison, Wisconsin, to back public sector workers in their battle to defend their union rights, and saluted the 14 state Democratic senators who left Wisconsin to block a vote on the Bill. Mr Moore said:
America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you’ll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It’s just that it’s not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.
When your GDP consists of 70[[]%] debt financed consumption.And yes they use the Expenditure method to calculate it. Your real GDP gets dwarfed into 30[[]%] ie 4 Trillion. Further, when your country has a debt level of 15 Trillion and growing. Ie 100[[]%] of the GDP or 400[[]%] of GDP. YOU SIR ARE BANKRUPT and owned by Asia. Ask a 12th grader who took an econ course.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:13 am Post subject:
by email wrote:
Madison, Wisconsin, is not just any midwestern city. During the 60s it was a leader in the student fight for the end ofthe Vietnam war. The university there was known as the Berkeley of the midwest. They had a war moratorium in which students all sat in the football stadium wearing black armbands and listening to speeches. Student protests and even riots were the standard. Before that it had a history of German immigrant cooperatives that gave the region a strong labor sense.
US Unions will be faced with a wipeout as the extent of the crisis is such that only by becoming a chinese worker in the USA will the US worker survive. Detroit despite being the 3rd biggest city when it was a car town and ever increasing wages for a couple of generations during the war and post war it started to collapse and has now gone back to being an agricultural town...
Firefighters in Wisconsin marched to the M&I bank earlier today in Madison and withdrew their money. In total they took an estimated $192,000.
They asked others to follow their lead. Apparently others did. Just updated:
A call to M&I's Capitol Square branch confirms the bank is closed for the rest of the day.
This is how you protest.
Anyone that has any money in this bank, no matter how little, should withdraw it ASAP. Make them feel the pain that they are causing the little people.
Of course it might be difficult to withdraw today, as they've had to close their doors to prevent a run. This story should continue to get out. The success of closing a bank even temporarily, will inspire other groups to continue their efforts.
When the firefighters arrived at the Capitol this morning they started the chant "MOVE YOUR MONEY!" Firefighters Local 311 President Joe Conway told the audience they should move their money out of M&I Bank. The bank was one of the leading contributors to the Walker campaign due to contributions by current and former executives and board members.
Off topic of this diary but:
Madison Fire Chief says he doesn't have the authority to force the Capital police to remove the cuffs from the door, but he is asking, as it violates State Fire Code. _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Published on Saturday, March 12, 2011 by The Nation
Tractors Roll Into Madison, As Wisconsin Readies For The Biggest Protest Yet
by John Nichols _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:09 pm Post subject:
Information Clearing House article on the Wisconsin fight-back:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27664.htm _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
There is definitely a lot of trying to make Wisconsin about Democrats vs. Republicans going on in the US right now. But those who are aware of the broader picture will keep their eye on the ball, on what's really going on. This is an excellent, nearly two-hour film about the broader picture on labor movements in the US, illustrating how labor has often been co-opted by the Democratic Party. It does not address all issues, or illustrate all crimes against the people, but it could be used as a useful teaching tool for helping people to "get it" about the 1% in the US who own 80% of the wealth.
From the person who brought this film to my attention yesterday: "Don't miss the actual videos of Obama's campaign promises contrasting to his completely opposite actions! Obama has become an even better Republican president than Bill Clinton (whose repeal of the Glass-Steagal law, marshalled by Democratic bankster and Obama advisor Robert Rubin) led to the current bank-caused recession."
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:07 am Post subject: 80% of all new income created in US went to top 1%
To modify a little what I put in earlier about how much the elites own -- I was going by memory. The 1%, 80% should read: "Between 1980 and 2005, 80% of all new income created in the United States went to the top 1%." (from Sen. Bernie Sanders speech before Congress Dec., 2010) Sorry for not getting it quite right the first time.
excerpt: "We fight back for our democracy! We fight back for our Constitution! We fight back for freedom of speech, for the right to assemble, for the right to freedom of association! We fight back for due process. We fight back and we fight back, in Wisconsin! [....] An economic democracy is a pre-condition of a political democracy. And so, let this be called the Madison Declaration for Economic Democracy. And that is: Everyone has the right to a job! Everyone has the right to an education! Everyone has the right to health care! Everyone has the right to retirement security! Everyone has the right to housing! And everyone has the right to peace!
This attack on our workers, this attack in on working people that results in wealth being accelerated to the top, that results in tax cuts going to the rich, that results in energy policy turned over to the oil companies, that results in defense policy turned over to the arms manufacturers, that results in endless war, that results in the National Security State, it's all a part of the same thing, and it's up to us to FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK! [demonstrators join in]
The objectives of corporations are different from those of government. They would like us to believe that the corporate ethic is what government should be about, but we know that corporations are here for one thing, and one thing only, and that is profit. Government belongs, not to the private sector, but to the public sector, and our responsibility in government is to provide service. The private sector would like to convert the assets of the public sector for their own use. That's why in your own legislation, in the bill, you can see there was an attempt --there's an attempt in the bill to try to privatize your electric services. You can see that. I know about this. I fought and beat a privatization of a municipal electrical plant in Cleveland many years ago. I understand about privatization. I understand that what these corporations want is they want total control over our government. ... They want total control of our government... "
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:50 pm Post subject: Kucinich in Wisconsin: WE CAN RECLAIM OUR GOVERNMENT!
[segue from previous post - Dennis Kucinich in Madison, Wisconsin, March 12, 2011]
PART OF OUR PROGRAM FOR ECONOMIC REFORM IS THAT WE END THE WARS IN IRAQ. WE END THE WARS IN AFGHANISTAN! WE STOP THIS NATIONAL SECURITY STATE! WE BRING OUR TROOPS HOME FROM AROUND THE WORLD! WE STOP THE PENTAGON CONTROL OF OUR GOVERNMENT! WE BREAK THE HOLD BY BREAKING THEIR BUDGET!!
[cheers]
NO MORE WARS! NO MORE WARS!
[points to crowd, who continues chant and clapping, "no more wars"]
NO MORE WARS!
There are those that believe that war is inevitable, because they make money from those wars, so that profit becomes inevitable, but we have to establish a new standard, which is what a department of peace is all about. That we have the capacity to create peace. That we are not just victims of the world we see.
We become victims of the world we see, when we buy into the psychology of war, which a false psychology, which is not something we should accept as the way the world should be.
WE HAVE A RIGHT TO ACCEPT A WORLD FREE OF WAR! WE HAVE A RIGHT TO ACCEPT A WORLD WHERE THERE IS PLENTY!
We have a right to create a world that has plenty. I also want to say that when we talk about, if we are going to create a context where state governments can survive for the people, then there has to be accountability. And now you're showing in Wisconsin, your determined there's going to be accountability for these State officials for not responding and or doing the bidding of corporations, I want to add this:
There is another thing our country needs to do. We need to add accountability, and insist on accountability for those that took us into war based on lies.
[cheers]
I wanna, I wanna say this in Wisconsin, because it needs to be said somewhere, but it's time that those who took us into war, based on lies, they outta be prosecuted once and for all!
LET'S RECLAIM OUR NATION!
LET'S RECLAIM OUR DIGNITY!
LET'S RECLAIM OUR MORALITY!
[cheers]
We are constantly told we don't have any money. Joseph Stiglitz pointed out that, that the war in Iraq would cost at least three trillion, we're at the half trillion dollar mark, with Afghanistan, but we will have a vote this week, and the vote will be to end the war in Afghanistan, it will be Thursday, House Concurrent Resolution 28, I'm proud to sponsor that, we're going to get another vote on Afghanistan.
But let me tell you this: One of the great myths, one of the great myths of our time is that we are told, "well you know we just don't have the money for these programs, we have money for war, we established that", but I want to offer this for your consideration, because it's actually the path out, not just for Wisconsin, but for all the States, who are struggling, with some legitimate budget problems, and we have to look at it this way:
We have to start to examine this debt based economic system, which puts us into believing the only way we can have money is to have debt. How did we come to believe this? We came to believe this, because you have the Federal Reserve that was established in 1913, they privatized the money system OK?
We have the fractional reserve system where banks create money out of nothing and then they pyramid the debts and stick the tax payers when they go bust!
We have, we have a government that says, "gee, we don't have the money to fix our roads, our bridges, our water systems, and sewer system", I want you to think about this now.
This is a time, in this debate, when transformation is in the air, when evolution is in the air, this is time for us in this debate, to start to look at the monetary system itself, and ask ourselves whether it isn't time to put the Fed back under the control of the Government, to end the fractional reserve of banking, and to say, "let government spend money and invest in to circulation to rebuild America! To put millions of people back to work to rebuild our roads, our water systems, our sewer system!"
MONEY FOR JOBS! MONEY FOR EDUCATION! MONEY FOR HEALTH CARE FOR ALL! WE DON'T HAVE TO BE BEGGING! WE DON'T HAVE TO BE IMPOVERISHED! WE DON'T HAVE TO BE STUCK WITH WAR FOREVER! WE CAN RECLAIM OUR GOVERNMENT! WE WILL RECLAIM IT HERE IN WISCONSIN! AND WE WILL RECLAIM IT NATIONALLY, BECAUSE OF WISCONSIN.
In the spirit of Dr. King, recall activists make history
Over 1 million signatures are turned in to force recall against Walker
By Lynda Jones, Editor
The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Justice Rally and March took place on Monday, Jan. 16th at St. Francis of Assisi Church. The event began with a program at the church featuring area speakers. (Photo by Robert A. Bell)
What a way to channel the spirit of the man who dedicated his life in fighting injustices, recall efforts successfully turned in over one million signatures to officially begin the process to recall. Recall activists have surpassed all signature gathering goals and will turn in enough signatures to trigger special recall elections for Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, Sen. Pam Galloway, Sen. Terry Moulton, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald and Sen. Van Wanggaard.
From the efforts of thousands of volunteers, grassroot organizations and union members history was made in Wisconsin. It must also be noted that Governor Walker received a total of 1,128,941 votes, 52.2 percent and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett received 1,004, 303 votes, 46.48 percent according to JSonline final vote totals, when he won the governor’s seat on Nov. 2, 2010, not a landslide to begin with. And Walker reportedly spent over $11 million on the governor’s race.
Recall volunteers endured attacks, both physical and verbal during the entire time that they stood out in the rain, cold and snow. Not once did Governor Walker or any other Republican legislators come out and publicly denounce the abusive behavior that these “Walker supporters” perpetrated against these activists. Not once did the Governor’s office ask for these attacks being committed in his name to stop.
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