An appeal to Wisconsin Unions and any other protesters against Herr Walker

[Yon_Yonson]

I am non-union but since February I have stood side by side with you wonderful people. I sure would like to see an organized rally in Madison over the Labor Day weekend. How appropriate to show support for unions on this very special holiday that they fought for and won for us all. Let say 140,000 + at the Madison Capital and we can demonstrate against Herr Walker at the same time.

I don’t have the connections to pull this sort of thing off but the unions have the rank & file and the various organized groups can orchestrate this gathering. Let’s show Herr Walker that we are still engaged and it is not over till we say it’s over.

[Pharaoh]

1. Yes we need another big rally

But it might be more effective right before the recall elections,

Although that could be effected by weather.

[Yon_Yonson]

6. Tell me when because my protest gear is packed and ready to go

A little fowl weather did not stop us in FEB :hippie:

[mbob731325]

13. agreed

[HelenWheels]

2. Local parades

Most areas have Labor Day parades in their own communities. These are sponsored by the Unions. I don't know if they can organize both events. One of the problems we face with big rallies is the lack of participation by teachers. There are a lot of teachers that don't take part in the rallies that are done to support teachers!

It's surprising how many teachers used to vote Repukelicant. Many have switched to the Dems but not all of them.

[Yon_Yonson]

5. How do we activate the teachers

I have seen teachers at rallies/protest but not in force like in early Feb. I have talked to my grandson's teachers but they don't seem interested. Maybe I am reading them wrong?

[HelenWheels]

3. Thanks for your support, Yon_Yonson.

[Yon_Yonson]

4. Your welcome and I must extend those thanks to all of us

that have entered the fight against this hostile takeover of the American common folk. I am affraid it's going to be a long War.

[Kashka-Kat]

7. so. central federation of labor is having its traditional "labor fest"

Theres been a lot of talk in various circles about "what happens next" - thought this article was very good re "We Are Wisconsin". Didn't know they (we) had become such a force to be reckoned with! Gives me great hope for the future.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/11-5

The massive demos were spontaneous, amazingly creative, and absolutely ESSENTIAL to our process of waking up and shaking off numbness and inertia creating a sense of cohesive connected community and power. Remember just going around making EYE CONTACT with everyone and holding it and knowing we were all here for the same reason - what an incredible buzz that was. I remember later in the day having doubts, thinking "nah, that sense of power, it's just an illusion, this is just a middle class ghost dance. We'll just cave and go whimpering back into our hidey holes like we always do." But then I'd get up to the capitol the next day - and feel energized and empowered all over agian.

So yes. They were essential. Are they still needed now or can we just know that we're still connected in spirit - even though scattered around all corners of teh state?

That said Labor Day would be the logical moment to get together again in unity, if we ever are to do so again, but I think there's so many local things that are traditional - it might not happen this year.

[ClassWarrior]

8. Or y'all come to Labor Fest in Milwaukee. If the mountain can't come to Mohammed...

...well, you know.

:D

NGU.

[Kashka-Kat]

9. March & Rally with State Workers Thurs Aug 25

March & Rally with
State Workers
Thurs., Aug. 25
4:30 pm Library Mall and
March to the Capitol
5 pm Rally at the Capitol

On this day Wisconsin State Employees will receive up to a 13% pay cut courtesy of Gov. Walker. Stand with state workers on August 25 to say “Enough!” We have sacrificed, and it is time that the corporate class pay its fair share.

Unity Lunch

Earlier in the day, UW-Madison labor unions will also be holding a Unity Lunch for campus workers from 11am-1:30pm on the west end of the Library Mall. All labor supporters are welcome.

"August 25 is day the benefit cuts show up in state employee paychecks," explained Laura Peterson, AFSCME Local 171 Executive Board Officer. "We'll be coming together to support each other and to talk about how we can build our unions and overturn these cuts."

"Members of AFSCME Local 171 earn as little as $11.28 an hour," says Local 171 Executive Board Officer Mike Imbrogno. "Our lowest paid members have suffered a pay cut of over $2,800 a year. For someone raising a child, these are poverty wages".

"Scott Walker and the Republican legislature have done everything they can to kill us, but we're still here," said Peterson. "We're determined to overturn these changes, but we also want to make sure the university doesn't take advantage of the situation to gut our seniority rights or contract out work on campus, as they did at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery".

Imbrogno sees Walker's attack on public employee unions as a continuation of attacks on unions that began when Ronald Reagan fired the PATCO strikers thirty years ago. "The rich keep getting richer and the rest of us keep getting poorer. That may make the Koch brothers happy but it's a bleak future for the rest of us. Unions have been at the front of the fight for good jobs and human dignity and we're going to remain in the fight."

The Unity Lunch is sponsored by AFSCME Locals 171 and 2412, the Teaching Assistants Association, and various other labor organizations.

[Yon_Yonson]

11. I will be there

:hippie:

[Yon_Yonson]

18. Workers Unite! We Will Not Pay For Your Crisis! Workers Unite!

Workers Unite!
We Will Not Pay For Your Crisis! Workers Unite!

On this day Wisconsin State Employees will receive up to a 13% pay cut
courtesy of Gov. Walker.
This pay cut does not just impact state workers,
but all Wisconsinites.

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that wage reductions implemented by Act 10 will cost the state nearly $1 billion in economic activity.

Walker and his cronies demand wage cuts for workers while offering massive handouts to corporations and the super-wealthy. Nationally, we are told by both sides of the political aisle that there must be "shared sacrifice" to solve our current fiscal woes. This translates to working people paying for the crisis caused by bankers and Wall Street.

Stand with state workers on August 25th to say “Enough!” We have sacrificed, and it is time that the corporate class pay its fair share.

Join the fight for a decent quality of life in Wisconsin.

Solidarity March and Rally with State Workers
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
4:30PM Library Mall and March to the Capitol
5:00PM Rally at the Capitol

http://www.defendwisconsin.org/2011/08/19/we-will-not-pay-for-your-crisis-workers-unite/

www.peoplesrightscampaign.​org

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139678456118743









When Thu Aug 25 4:30pm – 6pm Central Time
Where Library Mall up State Street to Capitol steps Madison WI (map)

[Yon_Yonson]

19. Now that was exciting & I finally got to march down State Street ...

... lead by the Madison Firefighters bagpipes and right up the capital steps. I guesstimate 1000 protesters and I stayed for most of the speeches but missed the arrests because I was going to attend a Democracy Convention workshop. Did not know they were planning to occupy the Capital building.

Read more:

13 Protesters Arrested in Wisconsin Capitol
By Matthew Rothschild, August 25, 2011

Activism returned to Madison, WI, on Thursday as 13 protesters ended up being arrested after refusing to leave the capitol building after another demonstration against Governor Scott Walker.
They were charged with unlawful assembly, and some also were charged with resisting arrest and obstructing an officer, said Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs.
“There is a difference between being nice and docile, between being nonviolent and being used,” said Damon, one of the protesters who was arrested.
“This is the people standing up saying, ‘We’re not going to take it anymore,’ ” said one woman who was also arrested.
“Are you going to sit there and wave signs, or are you going to do something that makes a difference?” said another person before being arrested.

http://www.progressive.org/wisconsin_protesters_arrested.html
:hippie:

[midnight]

10. The Pullman Strike and the deaths of worker at the hands of the U.S military gave us Labor Day.

During the economic panic of 1893, the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages as demands for their train cars plummeted and the company's revenue dropped. A delegation of workers complained of the low wages and sixteen hour workdays and the company's failure to decrease rents or the price of goods. Company owner George Pullman "loftily declined to talk with them."<3>
Many of the workers were already members of the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene V. Debs, which supported their strike by launching a boycott in which union members refused to run trains containing Pullman cars. The strike effectively shut down production in the Pullman factories and led to a lockout. Railroad workers across the nation refused to switch Pullman cars, and subsequently Wagner Palace cars, onto trains. The ARU declared that if switchmen were disciplined for the boycott, the entire ARU would strike in sympathy.<3>
The boycott was launched on June 26, 1894. Within four days, 125,000 workers on twenty-nine railroads had quit work rather than handle Pullman cars.<3> Adding fuel to the fire the railroad companies began hiring replacement workers (that is, strikebreakers), which only increased hostilities. Many African-Americans, fearful that the racism expressed by the American Railway Union would lock them out of another labor market, crossed the picket line, which added a racial division to the union's predicament.<4>
On June 29, 1894, Debs hosted a peaceful gathering to obtain support for the strike from fellow railroad workers at Blue Island, Illinois. Afterward groups within the crowd became enraged and set fire to nearby buildings and derailed a locomotive. Elsewhere in the United States, sympathy strikers prevented transportation of goods by walking off the job, obstructing railroad tracks or threatening and attacking strikebreakers. This increased national attention and fueled the demand for federal action.<5>
The railroads succeeding in having Richard Olney, general counsel for the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway, appointed as a special federal attorney with responsibility for dealing with the strike. Olney obtained an injunction barring union leaders from supporting the strike and demanding that the strikers cease their activities or face being fired. Debs and other leaders of the ARU ignored the injunction, and federal troops were called into action.<6>
The strike was broken up by United States Marshals and some 12,000 United States Army troops, commanded by Nelson Miles, sent in by President Grover Cleveland on the premise that the strike interfered with the delivery of U.S. Mail, violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and represented a threat to public safety. The arrival of the military and subsequent deaths of workers led to further outbreaks of violence. During the course of the strike, 13 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded. An estimated 6,000 rail workers did $340,000 worth of property damage (about $8,818,000 in 2010 dollars)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike

The erosion of workers wages, job security, and safe working conditions today are just as concerning today as they were in 1894... And their seems far greater abuses for labor rights with human resource dept. being schooled by attorneys on how not to hire American workers....

[Lifelong Protester]

12. I'm pretty linked-in on Facebook, so if I see any of the groups

planning something for Labor Day, I will post it here.

I know a lot of teachers who did help with the recall efforts...I was one of them!

[Yon_Yonson]

16. Then we stood shoulder to shoulder and thank you!

[ClassWarrior]

17. Labor Fest happens EVERY Labor Day in Milwaukee. It's a natural. Come join us!

NGU.

[Kashka-Kat]

14. The recall of WALKER is on!!! Was just at WisDems party to celebrate the recent elections and

that's the word from Risser & Miller - yeah! As I wrote in my questionnnaire critiquing my experience as a recall volunteer - taking on Walker is gonna happen with or without you, Dems! Guess enough of us expressed enthusiasm for the idea. I just love all the creative energy and the organic non-heirarchal way this ... well, OK, movement.... comes together and does these pretty powerful things.

Yon - you wrote "I don't have the connections" but you must know that you are indeed a part of this whole crazy huge interconnected thing! You put this post out - who knows where it will go from here! It is a good idea - I just might find myself wandering up the Square that day. "Labor Day" used to be just a day off, the last day of summer. It will never be the same to me again.

[Yon_Yonson]

15. What the hell I might just drive up and walk around the capital in my protest gear

Labor day sounds good for a trip to Madison ... never know who else might show up :hippie: A handful of us are better than nobody!

Last week I heard that there was a grass root meeting of parties involved in the Walker Recall and the talk is about timing. I really don't know much else but I've got my listening ears on!