An Egyptian supporter of the protests in Madison–and supporters in 11 other nations, and from 38 of the 50 states–are sending money to pay for pizzas, to be delivered to the protestors, according to Meredith Shiner’s article on Politico. Public employees are protesting Wisconsin Governor Walker’s proposed budget, which would eliminate collective bargaining by their unions.
“You don’t have to love unions, you don’t have to believe that their policy positions are always right, to recognize that they’re among the few influential players in our political system representing the interests of middle- and working-class Americans, as opposed to the wealthy. Indeed, if America has become more oligarchic and less democratic over the last 30 years — which it has — that’s to an important extent due to the decline of private-sector unions,” writes Paul Krugman at the NYT.
Krugman continues, “And now Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to get rid of public-sector unions, too. There’s a bitter irony here. The fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, as in other states, was largely caused by the increasing power of America’s oligarchy. After all, it was superwealthy players, not the general public, who pushed for financial deregulation and thereby set the stage for the economic crisis of 2008-9, a crisis whose aftermath is the main reason for the current budget crunch. And now the political right is trying to exploit that very crisis, using it to remove one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence. So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t.”
Seems to me, if the people who just wriggled out from under Mubarak are against him, then Gov. Walker is losing the publicity battle. Let’s hope he gets that, and agrees to a reasonable (and actually budget-related) compromise.
In the meantime, Ian’s Pizza in Madison is (608) 257-9248. They open at 11am, central time.
Via Slatest.
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