Stephanie Taylor: What Wisconsin's governor is really threatening

What Wisconsin's governor is really threatening: When Scott Walker talks of unleashing the National Guard on public employees, he conjures an ugly history
By Stephanie Taylor
Salon

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has declared war on state workers, almost literally.

First, he proposed a state budget that would cut retirement and healthcare for workers like teachers and nurses, and strip away nearly all of their collective bargaining rights. But even more significantly, he announced last Friday that he had alerted the National Guard to be ready for state workers to strike or protest, an unprecedented step in modern times.

This would be the first time in nearly 80 years that the National Guard would be used to break a strike by Wisconsin workers, and the first time in over 40 years that the National Guard would be used against public workers anywhere in the country. The last time was the Memphis sanitation strike in 1968, just before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

The outrage was immediate across labor message boards, Twitter and Facebook pages. Over the last two days, tens of thousands have protested in front of the capitol building in Madison in defiance of the governor, some even camping overnight.

To understand the visceral, emotional nature of this outcry, you have to understand the history of the National Guard and the labor movement -- and what this means for the relationship between labor and the state today.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, governors often mobilized the National Guard during strikes. Sometimes the Guard was genuinely neutral, assigned to buffer the dangerous zone between strikers and their employers. Other times, the Guard was explicitly charged with breaking the strike. During these instances, violence often erupted between strikers and soldiers with terrible, bloody results.

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The Boston Globe: France on Strike

France on Strike
The Boston Globe



Weeks of strikes, protests and demonstrations have brought much of France to a standstill as workers, students and others voice their strong opposition to a government proposal to raise the age for a minimum pension from 60 to 62. A quarter of the nation's gas stations were out of fuel, hundreds of flights were canceled, long lines formed at gas stations and train services in many regions were cut in half. Protesters blockaded Marseille's airport, Lady Gaga canceled concerts in Paris and rioting youths attacked police in Lyon. The unpopular bill is edging closer to becoming law as the French Senate is preparing to vote on it today. Collected here are recent images of the unrest around France.












To View the Photo-Documentary of the Strikes

Brian Becker: French Workers' Uprising and Prospects for the U.S.

Video: French workers and students rise up
Brian Becker analyzes French workers' uprising and prospects for the U.S.
ANSWER

The US government spends $1 billion every two days to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan. It spends nearly $1 trillion each year for weapons and war. War is very profitable for the corporations and the bankers that dominate all parts of the economy. Meanwhile, working families are seeing their wages cut, pensions eliminated, jobs disappearing while being lectured by the same elites about the need to tighten our belt in the new “age of austerity”.

Working people and students around the globe are facing the same problem.

Right now, millions of public and private sector workers, students and others are taking to the streets in cities across France. They are taking aim at the French government's pledge to raise the retirement age for workers and other so-called austerity measures.

The heroic demonstrations and strikes, including the blockade of fuel terminals, has virtually shut down the country. Transportation services, businesses, media outlets and banks have been crippled by militant mass protests.

The struggles facing workers in the United States are the same as those in Europe and around the world. The bankers and politicians want to make us pay for an economic crisis caused by the bankers and corporate elites. They want us to send our young people to fight in endless wars for Empire.

Over 30 million people in the United States are unemployed or underemployed. The wages of part-time workers have been slashed in the last year.

While the banks and corporations are making record profits, the poverty rate has reached a new high point. Young people are being forced out of college because of tuition increases.

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Al Jazeera: Protests attack France pension plan -- More than 2.5 million demonstrators take to the streets, unions say, as fears of a fuel shortage

"Of all the groups fighting against changes to the retirement age, young people arguably represent the biggest menace to the government. Workers' unions may have considerable political influence, but historically youth protest have contributed significantly toward bringing down government reforms."

Al Jazeera: Protests attack France pension plan -- More than 2.5 million demonstrators take to the streets, unions say, as fears of a fuel shortage loom