MADISON, WISCONSIN, March 5 — Arriving at midnight on March 3, I went to the Capitol early the next day. The streets were packed with people carrying picket signs, some from their unions, some homemade. Inside the Capitol rotunda a tremendous spirit of solidarity and joy filled the air. A group of boilermakers and pipefitters wearing hardhats entered to applause.
One of their leaders took over leadership of the chants. “Hey-hey, Ho-ho, Governor Walker has got to go! Union Power; Worker’s Rights” reverberated through the hall.
I asked if I could make some remarks. When I said I was from the Bronx, people chanted, “Thank you, thank you!”
I replied, “No, thank you, workers of Wisconsin. All over people are rooting for you who are on the front lines leading the struggle against attacks on working people.” I explained that on my campus we had a Support Wisconsin Day and showed them the stickers my local, the Professional Staff Congress, was distributing throughout NYC.
Class War
“Too many people have struggled and died for workers’ rights. There’s no way we will allow these gains to be erased.” Pointing to a Teamsters Local sign saying, “Stop the War on Workers,” I declared, “Class war was being waged against the working class. We must organize ourselves to make class war against the bosses. We should live to see the day when there are no more rich over us to exploit us!” The crowd agreed.
The next day, Saturday, tens of thousand encircled the Capitol. Private-sector unionists, non-union workers and even small businessmen were there to support the public-sector workers. People refused to be pitted against each other by the bosses’ lies that public-sector workers were “riding a gravy train” at the expense of the taxpayers.
Many in the crowd wore red in solidarity but the leadership’s politics was anything but red. The main speaker, Michael Moore, explained correctly that there wouldn’t be a “budget deficit” if Walker hadn’t granted tax breaks to the wealthy as soon as he was elected. Moore explained that a very small group of rich people was getting richer and that they bribed the politicians.
But, as Moore did in his documentary movies, he upheld the Democratic Party as the savior of the people. He led a chant, “Fab Fourteen, Fab Fourteen!” praising the Democratic State Senators who had left the state to try to prevent Walker and the Republican State Senators from passing a bill denying collective bargaining rights to Wisconsin’s public-sector workers.
Dems, G.O.P. Agree on Cuts
But both parties’ politicians in Wisconsin and nation-wide agree that workers must take deep cuts. For example, the Democratic Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, recently terminated the entire teaching staff; and NY Democratic Governor Cuomo has won support from Republican and Conservative politicians with his austerity budget.
So what needs to be done? In Wisconsin, many union leaders are calling for “recalls” to create elections to oust Walker and the Republican State Senators, replacing them with Democratic Party politicians. On the other hand, the South Wisconsin Central Labor Council is considering a general strike against Walker’s union-busting and budget-cutting.
Phony “leftist” parties distributed literature calling for a general strike, too. But only the Progressive Labor Party is calling for the building of a revolutionary movement as well as a general strike. General strikes improve class consciousness and are opportunities for the working class to realize its own tremendous strength, but only revolution will eliminate the capitalist class permanently and put the working class in the driver’s seat.