At the Madison Capitol: Demands and Tactics Have Shifted

Private-sector workers joined teachers and other state employees at Wisconsin's Capitol Thursday. Photo: Andrew Sernatinger.

Protests continue into the fourth day here in Madison and the mood is electric.

Representatives of nearly every major union in Wisconsin have come to the Capitol in solidarity with state workers, clearly recognizing Governor Scott Walker's bill as a union-buster having nothing to do with the budget. The first watershed moment was on Tuesday morning, when a contingent of firefighters joined the rally, undercutting Walker’s plan to divide-and-conquer by preserving bargaining rights for firefighters and police.

Since then, groups of plumbers, pipefitters, iron and steelworkers, teamsters, electricians and many other private-sector unionists have all joined the movement to stop the legislation.

The creativity among the demonstrators is astounding. Many signs are touchingly personal about what union contracts mean for workers’ families, but more than anything there is a playful tone, with takes on Star Wars (“Stop the Imperial Walker!”), Egypt (“Walk like an Egyptian”), and any number of badger puns.

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Inside the Capitol itself, workers have redecorated the building by posting their signs anywhere and everywhere they can: above doorways, over balconies, in windows, and especially on the Forward! statue at the base of the building.

By Thursday afternoon, the demands and tactics have both shifted to something more. Teachers lead chants to recall the governor and activists inside stage sit-ins in front of legislators’ offices to block any movement on the bill.

As Democratic legislators flee the state to break quorum on the bill, one thing is clear: Wisconsin workers know the country is watching and they are not willing to lose.


Andrew Sernatinger is a baker in Madison. He plans to be at Labor Notes' Troublemakers School there April 1-2.

Comments

Jay West (not verified) | 02/18/11

The defiant and dynamic action of Wisconsin's public employees raises the possibilities for workers across the country. It is also heartening that private sector union members are actively supporting and refusing to be divided. However, defending the interests of unionized workers, particularly during a depression, has historically required united action of the employed and unemployed. Corporate power is unrelenting in its effort to manipulate 40 million (the real number) unemployed, underemployed, uncounted, and increasingly desperate workers as a wedge to drive down wages and break unions. Yet organized labor has blindly failed to recognize and act on the necessity to organize and mobilize this potentially powerful natural ally. This crucial challenge, more than any other, will make or break the future of all working people in the coming period.

Some are now calling for a recall election. But we need to remember it’s because of decades of over-reliance on a corporately-tilted political process that union power has deteriorated in the first place. The recall opportunity has been created by mass action, not the other way around. Perhaps the optimum use of union resources and energy is something like 2% for electoral politics, 98% for building mass action (with a major emphasis on organizing the unemployed).