The Madison-Washington Connection

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_madison-washington_connection_20110222/

The demonstrators in Madison, Wis., are fighting to preserve American hopes for opportunity and security that conservative Republicans are trying to destroy.

Republican efforts in Washington, D.C., and Madison go hand in hand. The union members in Madison are fighting an effort by the Republican governor and Legislature to take away public employee unions’ collective bargaining rights. Elimination of such rights in public- and private-sector unions would leave workers without protection, leading to a widening of the gulf between the rich and the poor or those of moderate income. In Washington, right-wing Republicans in power in the House of Representatives are demanding cuts in education and other programs that help working people’s chances of bridging that gap.

Let’s hope the efforts of the Madison demonstrators will stir the liberal grass roots to fight the GOP with the energy the protesters are displaying at the Wisconsin Statehouse. Not enough people see the connection between Madison, Washington and the oppression of working people. It’s easy for progressives to dismiss the House tea party Republicans as a bunch of stubborn ignoramuses. And the mainstream media—as demonstrated on ABC’s “This Week” last Sunday—are shrugging off the thousands of public employee union members as throwbacks to the 1960s or even the 1930s.

The connection is clear. While Republicans in the nation’s Capitol were preparing their extreme budget cut proposals, Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP-dominated Legislature were working up a package of their own. Facing a projected deficit—caused largely by Republican business tax breaks—the governor demanded that state employees increase their contributions to health and pension systems. Leaders of two of Wisconsin’s largest public employee unions said they are willing to accept the financial concessions demanded by Walker, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. But the unions said they will not go along with the governor’s union-busting goal, stripping the unions of most of their collective bargaining rights. Walker rejected the union offer.

More at the link --