Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

[ohliz]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: lonrwolf</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
You don't get it. Both parties are attacking Union benefits
</div></div>
Trying to reduce benefits is a far cry from union busting.
</div></div>

Exactly. Unions have made financial concessions for quite a long time now, and that sucks. But let's not pretend that Democrats and Republicans have anything like the same policies toward unions.

JC's good points about capitalists of both parties aside, at the very least, unions are an important fundraising and organizing source for Democrats. As one article put it, getting rid of unions would be for Dems like getting rid of evangelical churches would be for Republicans. These are the people who show up and demonstrate, who make the phone calls, who get their people out to vote. it is for this reason, more than for the nonexistent financial savings (at least in this case there is no difference in $$$ saved), that Republicans would like unions to go away.

Love unions or hate them, you must admit there aren't many organizations that represent and lobby on behalf of working people. Their disappearance would be a real loss for our country.

In Wisconsin, the unions more sympathetic to Republicans in terms of their memberships are exempted from this bill. Including the union lonrwolf belongs to.

[jamaica_dreamin]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

Love unions or hate them, you must admit there aren't many organizations that represent and lobby on behalf of working people. Their disappearance would be a real loss for our country


Amen!

Union YES!

[ohliz]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnnycakes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And here's everybody's favorite, Noam Chomsky's response to the question of why the Democrat Party <span style="font-weight: bold">doesn't join with the union workers in Wisconsin.. </span></div></div>

Ummm...except for every single Democrat in the Senate leaving the state and preventing a quorum which is the <span style="font-style: italic">only </span>thing that has kept this bill from being passed?

How &quot;joined&quot; should they be? If they were there demonstrating - which they were, earlier in this process - they'd be dragged into the Senate and the anti-union bill would pass.

[Nanook]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

I found this list via the impeach scott walker page on FB, of a list of Koch Industries products:

<span style="font-weight: bold">BOYCOTT!!!!</span>

(Georgia-Pacific products)
Angel Soft toilet paper
Brawny paper towels
Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
Mardi Gras napkins and towels
Quilted Northern toilet paper
Soft 'n Gentle toilet paper
Sparkle napkins
Vanity fair napkins
Zee napkins
Georgia-Pacific paper products and envelopes
All Georgia-Pacific lumber and building products *more detailed list below*
(INVISTA Products)
Lycra
Stainmaster Carpet
CoolMax


This is the link to the site where is the list:

here

And, in case anyone hasn't seen it yet, here is a link to the impeach Scott Walker facebook page, please join.

join the page here

[Nanook]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

It is pretty in my face, that list. So many of the companies owned by Koch Industries are paper products companies. Earlier in this thread I mentioned the union busting tactics and eventual sale of my workplace to the South Africans without a contract. It was a paper mill. We had not long before that fought NAFTA tooth and nail.

[Nanook]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

<span style="font-weight: bold">On this date, in 1940, Woody Guthrie, wrote this song....</span>

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/r_HGDCj8hP0&amp;feature=player_embedded"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/r_HGDCj8hP0&amp;feature=player_embedded" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>


THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie

Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus
<span style="font-size: 20pt">
<span style="font-weight: bold">In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
</span></span>

AMEN

[RichD]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

so the congressional leadership tried to defund the NLRB

[johnnycakes]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ohliz</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnnycakes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And here's everybody's favorite, Noam Chomsky's response to the question of why the Democrat Party <span style="font-weight: bold">doesn't join with the union workers in Wisconsin.. </span></div></div>

Ummm...except for every single Democrat in the Senate leaving the state and preventing a quorum which is the <span style="font-style: italic">only </span>thing that has kept this bill from being passed?

How &quot;joined&quot; should they be? If they were there demonstrating - which they were, earlier in this process - they'd be dragged into the Senate and the anti-union bill would pass.
</div></div>


Ohliz,

What the Democrats do as far as supporting this one event means little in the big picture where unions are being squeezed out by the union busting tactics of the people who OWN the Democrats and the Republicans and that is big business.

I fully back the union actions in Wisconsin. I'm a communist remember.
But I am also cognizant of the fact that this is not the country it was in the 1930's when most of the unions were formed and by communists or communist sympathizers.
Since then the anti-communist witch hunts of the late 40's and 50's decimated the honest union leadership and replaced it with right wing goons and crooks. Unions have been on the way out ever since then.

Add to that the fact that the capitalist economy under which unions prospered has evolved into an oligarchy where the corporations run the government and pass the anti-union laws they need to get rid of workers rights.
These laws were passed by the same Democrat Party now saying they support the actions in Wisconsin.

You can choose to not see the forest for the tree but the corporate owners of the government can afford to lose a little bit in Wisconsin because it amounts to losing one battle in a war that they are winning BIG.

Sure, individual and local Democrats may have some sense of solidarity with the workers of the country but that does not carry over into national laws that are killing the unions.

[ohliz]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

OK JC. I thought you were referring to the Dems in WI. It would be hard to find fault with them, I feel, but I take your point about the party nationally.

If you missed this...Gov Walker got punked by a Buffalo newspaper journalist who managed to get him to take his call thinking he was David Koch. What ensues is an amazing conversation....20 minutes long, that says a lot about what Walker is trying to do and also how incredibly stupid he is not to realize he's not talking to Koch....

http://www.buffalobeast.com/?p=5045

[Nanook]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

Liz, I couldn't get your link to work but I have one with the conversation here...

Brilliant, not!

[Nanook]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

<span style="font-style: italic">&quot;The Buffalo Beast site, which organized the prank, is down&quot;</span>

Yes, let's censor them!

What's next? I live in Wisconsin. Will my internet service and cell phone service just go &quot;poof&quot;?

[jah_yout]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

i notice the new york press barely mentions the story...

you are far more likely to see kim kardashian or lindsay lohan on the front pages...

wonder why

[Nanook]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

Our news today was a bit quet as well, except for the stir caused by Walkers refusal to participate this morning in the annual &quot;Superior Day's&quot; breakfast in Madison. This is an annual event, which helps to connect our northern communities with the rest of the state. Basically, the rest of the sate doesn't realize we are up here for the most part.

Anyway, the reason I am posting is this is fresh off the Impeach Walker facebook page...

<span style="font-weight: bold">
Sen. Carpenter: Governor Walker’s secret tape problem: If true, he should resign

</span>

2/23/2011

Madison – Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) sent the following letter to Governor Scott Walker after secret tapes surfaced in which the governor apparently thought he was speaking to a campaign supporter, but instead was speaking to a reporter.

A copy of the letter is attached.

The text of the letter follows:

Dear Governor Walker,

I am informed that a tape recording has been released in which you apparently held an extensive discussion with someone you believed to be your campaign supporter, David Koch. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel states that the caller was actually a reporter, pretending to be David Koch, and it has posted a transcript of the recording. It appears that you admit the call occurred, and have not contested the authenticity of transcript.

David Koch is the billionaire businessman who reportedly contributed thousands to your campaign and who the media claims is a key source of funding for shadowy political groups that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking your political adversaries in our state.

At a historic moment in our State’s history, brought on by your refusal to compromise with elected officials regarding the elimination of worker’s rights, you still refuse to talk with Democratic legislators. However, you apparently have no problem taking a phone call from “Mr. Koch” and to:

Discuss your strategy to lay off public workers to seek partisan advantage to pass your agenda;

Discuss your plan to lure Democratic legislators to the Capitol on the pretext of negotiation, but then state that you would never actually negotiate;

Discuss your plan to use the pretext of negotiation to get a quorum for legislative fiscal action that Republicans so far have not been able to do;

Discuss that you considered the “planting” of paid troublemakers into the peaceful protests at our Capitol; and to

Give your enthusiastic acceptance to an offer from “Koch” to fly you out on a vacation to show you a “good time” once you “crush these bastards.” Your response was “That would be outstanding…” Given that Koch’s businesses could reap vast rewards with the ‘no bid’ sale of the Wisconsin’s power plants that you propose in your budget repair bill, this response is severely troubling.

Governor Walker, this tape would make Richard Nixon blush. If the recording and the items discussed by you are indeed your plans, you have no business being in public office in our State, and should resign.

source

[Nanook]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

Apparently Buffalo Beast site keeps going down over the amount of traffic.

Buffalo Beast: Buffalo Beast Site Still Down
By Derek Johnson on February 23rd, 2011

The online newspaper Buffalo Beast returned for a couple of minutes late this afternoon, but it seems like the website is back down. The website was shut down this afternoon after publishing a prank phone call between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and an editor at the Buffalo Beast.

Why would Walker take a phone call from the editor of a Buffalo online-newspaper? Because Walker thought he was talking to David Koch, a conservative businessman who is one of Koch’s main campaign contributors according to the Los Angeles Times.

The reason for the shut down is most likely due to an overload, as people were flooding the website trying to listen to the prank call.

source

[ohliz]

Re: Wisconsin protests: why 'week of rage' matters to

It was the Beast I linked. I suspect it just wasn't ready for all the traffic today.

I live in Ohio. Jesse Jackson was here today speaking to our unions, we are up next, as it were, in the effort to break public unions.

He said: &quot;Roosevelt put a roof on greed and a floor under the poor&quot;. That about sums it up, it states perfectly what the right is trying to undo.