Madison, Wisconsin: Ground Zero for a New Class War

J.W. and L.A. Leavitt: New Class War

WHAT HAS been happening for the last week in the Wisconsin state capital represents the first salvo in a new confrontation between working people and the business elite; it is an all out attack on unions and collective bargaining rights hard-won over the past fifty years. Wisconsinites are learning the hard way that elections have consequences. Last November’s election in Wisconsin turned the state house from blue to red, and the Republican victors have, since January 4, been busy trying to bring down the state’s deficit on the backs of some of the very people who voted them in. Refusing to consider raising taxes on the wealthiest section of the state, and determined to give tax benefits to businesses that move into Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled state senate and assembly are instead insisting that public workers contribute to deficit reduction by paying more into their pension accounts and for their health care, effectively taking an 8 to 10 percent salary cut. Even though the cuts would affect low-wage workers the hardest, they are acceptable to most state employees, who are willing to do their share to help out. But Walker is not consulting the public employees’ unions to work out the details or let their voices be involved in the decision. Instead, he wants to break the public unions and take away their collective bargaining rights now and for the future. He threatens to call out the National Guard to quell any potential disturbances.

The activities in Madison and around the state are making it perfectly clear that an electoral change will affect all citizens in ways they may not have appreciated when they cast their ballots. Tens of thousands of voters turned up at the state capitol for days running (with many sleeping in the Capitol Rotunda) to protest the Republican plan to abolish collective bargaining rights for all state employees, including 175,000 teachers, university faculty and staff, teaching assistants, hospital employees and nurses, street cleaners, garbage collectors, and prison guards—virtually all city and state employees—but excluding firefighters and police. Representatives of the two unions exempted from this horror (those unions supported Walker in the election) have turned out in support of the protestors.

The vote in the finance committee to approve the budget repair bill with its union-busting provision took place in the dead of night on Monday. The vote in the senate to approve the committee’s recommendation (which passed on a party-line split) has, as of this writing, been delayed because the Democratic senators have left the capitol, making a quorum impossible and giving time for a longer consideration of the issues. Democrats hope that when Governor Walker releases his budget proposal on Tuesday, the full meaning of his actions in this “repair” bill will be more obvious. Meanwhile, the governor has sent out the state troopers to round up the Democratic senators, who left the state to avoid their grasp.

In the name of efficiency, an additional part of the budget repair bill will take away civil-service protections for many upper-level state agency personnel and give those positions to the governor to appoint. Patronage has already governed how Walker fills state positions: the father of both the current Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Majority Leader (brothers) has been appointed chief of the state police.

The proposed revocation of public unions’ collective bargaining rights and the decrease in civil service positions—which seems sure to pass—override in one fell swoop over forty years of union activity in building worker protections and in civil service reforms. We in Wisconsin are in a state of shock at how rapidly—in less than one week—things have gone from initial proposal to a vote, with virtually no public discussion.

Nonetheless, the demonstrations have made it clear that people have found ways to let their feelings be known, and national media and social networks have brought national attention to Wisconsin’s plight. That part is wonderful to behold. Hundreds of high school students and thousands of college students have added the energy of youth to the tens of thousands of public and private unionists and their supporters—including members of the state’s beloved Super Bowl Champions, the Green Bay Packers—who have occupied the capitol and center of the city for almost a week. One hope-inspiring part of this experience is to see steel workers and steamfitters marching arm in arm with teachers, their students, and police to protect their collective rights. It has been many years since we have seen such union solidarity.

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, unions have become the biggest countervailing source of funds to the immense contributions of corporations to right-wing coffers. Unions are in the crosshairs of a reactionary movement that smells blood. Wisconsin is where social security was conceived. Wisconsin is where our nation’s first state law (1959) codifying the rights of public employees to unionize was passed. A loss of collective bargaining for Wisconsin state employees would be a devastating blow to the Wisconsin progressive tradition and a powerful psychological and political boost to national right-wing activists.

Madison is not Egypt. But it is the first battle of a new class war pitting the middle and working classes against a rich and powerful business class; it is a harbinger of other battles ahead. Even if the Republicans win here, they may yet be vulnerable elsewhere. Now is the time to organize not just to try to save Wisconsin workers, but to look ahead to Ohio, Indiana, and elsewhere to prevent future anti-labor initiatives like Walker’s. Perhaps Wisconsin’s experiences will help other states withstand such attacks on citizen rights. And perhaps voters will remember this when next they cast their ballots.

Judith W. Leavitt is Ruth Bleier Professor and Rupple Bascom Chair Professor emerita in the history of medicine at University of Wisconsin. Lewis A. Leavitt is professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin.