The Chris Moeller Archives

King and Wisconsin

Focus your eyes on your state capitol building, Americans, active democracy may be arriving shortly in the form of thousands of protesters. Starting in Madison, Wisconsin this week-- in the state that gave us the La Follettes, Victor Berger, Russ Feingold, the "Progressive-Socialist federation," and 40 years of Socialist mayors in its largest city of Milwaukee.

Like Wisconsin, Iowa is crippled right now by a new governor that wants to use the national economic depression caused by deregulation and corruption in the banking and lending industries to force an elimination of social protections like state pensions and health insurance. If possible, both men would also put an end to corporate taxes entirely, and to the very fundamental right of public employees to bargain collectively.

This last issue is of no small historic significance. Dr. Martin Luther King very literally gave up his life in the pursuit of that right for striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968 when that city's mayor, Henry Loeb, and its Council claimed that it was illegal for public employees to unionize. Today, public employees are the last remaining organized faction of the entire American workforce that still, by and large, have pension plans of any kind. Other Americans have seen their pensions eliminated by a right-of-center political coalition of Democrats and Republicans and their corporate bribers, and with that mighty shift towards the union-busting whims of the Corporate Right has gone the existence of the American middle-class.

Another parallel to Memphis of 1968 is that the Wisconsin governor has threatened to employ the State Guard as his personal army to quash protesters. This was once common practice among state executives (particularly in the early 20th century) in putting down labor protests and strikes through the Mubarak-style threat-- and often follow-through-- of violence by the state. Tennessee's attack on the protesting, peaceful sanitation workers and their supporters in March of '68 marks the last time that such a state-sponsored attack was actually carried out in the U.S. against its citizens. The assassination of the movement's pacifist leader, Dr. King, meant an essential end to the people's tolerance of such "law and order" tactics by police.

Sixty-eight thousand protesters were on the streets of Madison Saturday, making any of the well-publicized and well-funded Tea Party rallies of the last two years, at the state level, look like an actual tea party. Collectively, state and local governments are the country's largest job provider so this can be seen easily for what it is-- an attempt to blame fair wages and benefits to a large number of citizens for budget shortfalls being experienced in many states. But these wages and benefits didn't cause these budget problems. The deficits were caused by a shortage in tax revenue through failures in human character to tax the wealthy, and by federal government allocations to the states being re-routed to such other priorities as Wall Street bailouts and two illegal wars.

Do state employees make more money and receive better benefits than average wage-earners? The answer is yes. But they're also better educated and older, statistically, which few of the studies you'll read take into account. According to the Center for Economic Policy Research, an exception, government employees of the same age and educational background actually make 4% less than private sector employees.

Iowa is up next. Republican nutjobs here have challenged the public employees' bargaining rights at the statehouse, even as our new governor, who stands behind that effort, has the gall to collect a pension from his previous stint as governor when he's not even retired. A rally for workers' rights has been scheduled at the capitol building in Des Moines for Tuesday afternoon at 1pm. Are you an Iowan looking for a chance to live your life in the spirit of Dr. King? Here's a chance.

posted by CM @ 1:25 PM