The Wisconsin Protest: Workers Take A Stand

These are exciting times, not only in the Middle East but also Wisconsin. People are rising up and telling truth to power. The truth is they've had enough. Like Mississippi civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer said back in the day: They're "sick and tired of being sick and tired."

The U.S. labor movement is on the line in Wisconsin, where a union-busting governor would like to strip workers of their legal right to organize and speak as one. In the same state where the bottomless coffers of the GOP money machine recently brought down one of the U.S. Senate's most progressive members, Russ Feingold, the true aim of that political/corporate machine and its ward heelers and precinct captains has become clear: DESTROY UNIONS.

Wisconsin is a long way from the U.S. South, but the union-busters got their inspiration from down here. They're working hard to gut public sector unions across the country and enact so-called right-to-work laws beyond the South and Midwest. They're even looking to woebegotten Mississippi--the nation's poorest state in most categories regarding workers--as a shining citadel. Why do I say that? Well, this is the state that not only enacted a right-to-work law, it put it into its state constitution. That is what other states are now hoping to do.

I'll soon be reporting more on this and the Southern connections in an upcoming posting.

Take a look at this video by Matt Wisniewski to get some inspiration as you read the headlines and watch the evening news about the goings-on in Wisconsin. Enjoy the great music from the band Arcade Fire, too. The song is Rebellion. This is a people's movement. Power to the people!