"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Friday, February 18, 2011

Our Egypt

Wherever brothers and sister join together to rebuke repression, social injustice, and the abuse of power, the spirit of Cairo lives.  Today it breathes strongly in Wisconsin, sending a fresh air into Michigan and Ohio, Indiana and New Jersey. 

When the Oligarchs led by the Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist made this fateful decision to actuate their movement to crush working people's rights, they made a tragic error in their crusade to make the world safe for unrestrained greed and criminal abuse of the environment. 

The oligarchs have fanned the coals that have been burning deep in the souls of the American people since the banksters of Wall Street and their paid stooges in Washington staged the Heist of the Century in 2008, leaving the country in turmoil.

Now the fire is lit, and it burns with the same determined intensity that sent the thug, thief, and murderer Mubarak into retirement.  This murderous assault on American values of fairness in the work place will not stand.  The Kochs and Norquist have severely overplayed their hand, and now they have been called.

From Stan Karp:

Unions aren't to blame for Wisconsin's budget
Ezra Klein, Washington Post, 2.18.11
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/02/unions_arent_to_blame_for_wisc.html
Let's be clear: Whatever fiscal problems Wisconsin is -- or is not -- facing at the moment, they're not caused by labor unions. That's also true for New Jersey, for Ohio and for the other states. There was no sharp rise in collective bargaining in 2006 and 2007, no major reforms of the country's labor laws, no dramatic change in how unions organize. And yet, state budgets collapsed. Revenues plummeted. Taxes had to go up, and spending had to go down, all across the country. Blame the banks. Blame global capital flows. Blame lax regulation of Wall Street. Blame home buyers, or home sellers. But don't blame the unions. Not for this recession.

ON WISCONSIN: Live Reports From Ground Zero for Labor Rights
http://www.thenation.com/blog/158668/wisconsin-live-reports-ground-zero-labor-rights
 
WI Protests – Students Fuel Round The Clock Hearing
http://theuptake.org/2011/02/18/wi-protestsround-the-clock-hearing/
Students testify at a Wisconsin legislative hearing about why Senate File 11, an anti-union measure, should not be passed. The hearing has been going on round the clock for more than 90 hours so the state of Wisconsin is forced to keep the Capitol building in Madison open to protesters

Wisconsin union fight trickles into N.J.
“I support Gov. Walker,” Christie said.
http://blogs.app.com/capitolquickies/2011/02/18/wisconsin-union-fight-trickles-into-n-j/
 
Wisconsin is America's Egypt

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87224&id=1590202857&fbid=1704092974064
Photos of the Wisconsin protests

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