The Right of the People

 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Today, the Wisconsin Senate illegally voted through a bill that removes fundamental rights of the working people.

Today, in Michigan, the Senate passed a bill that allows the governor to declare a state of fiscal emergency (state of emergency law? sound familiar?) that allows the state government to dissolve contracts, dissolve unions, even dissolve town governments, and replace them with a unilateral dictator who can be paid an unlimited salary.

Today, unions (human rights) are under attack in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Idaho, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Tennessee, the list goes on.

Today, the fundamental rights of people in this country are under attack.

Today, we must exercise the right of the people to alter or abolish the government. We must do whatever we can, peacefully, to stop what the GOP and their cronies are trying to do. They have shown quite clearly that they will not obey the law. They held their votes tonight illegally. They have violated the state constitution to lock (and weld!) entrances to the capitol, denying constituents entrance.

Today, we must work to recall the republicans that are eligible. We must get out the vote in upcoming elections. We must challenge the illegal actions of the current government in courts of law.

Tomorrow, or the next day, when the Governor signs this bill into law, the public workers of the state of Wisconsin must stage a general strike, and all unions that are able must strike in solidarity, and the people must take to the streets, and we must take our government back.

This is What Class Warfare Looks Like

 

“It is time for us all
To decide who we are
Do we fight for the right
To a night at the opera now?
Have you asked of yourselves
What's the price you might pay?
Is it simply a game
For rich young boys to play?
The color of the world
Is changing day by day...

Red - the blood of angry men!
Black - the dark of ages past!
Red - a world about to dawn!
Black - the night that ends at last!”
- Les Miserables

Today’s inspirational quote comes from Les Miserables (the musical), an apt source as you will see.

A favorite chant of protestors against Scott Walker’s attack on unions is “this is what democracy looks like.” This fight is not limited to Wisconsin, it is not limited to public-sector unions, it is an attack on all working people. So I say: this is what class warfare looks like.

In 1789 in France, the First Estate (the clergy), owned 10% of the land, paid no taxes, and comprised .039% of the population. The Second Estate (the nobility), owned 25% of the land, paid no taxes, and comprised 1.5% of the population. Meanwhile, the Third Estate (the peasants) comprised 98% of the population and paid all of the taxes. ¹

 

In 2007 in the United States, the top 1% of the population owned 42.7% of the wealth, the next 19% owned 50.3% of the wealth, and the bottom 80% of the population owned a meager 7.0% of the wealth. And for a far more stark picture, the bottom 40% of the population own 0.3% of the wealth.² And after the financial collapse of 2008-2009, the poor have only gotten poorer.

Generally speaking, if you ask someone in this country what social class they belong too, they say the middle class.³ In fact, 59% claim to be ‘upper middle class’ or ‘middle class,’ while only 39% consider themselves to be ‘working class.’

I’ll give everyone a hint: it’s very likely that on the larger scale, you are poor.

Meanwhile, corporations, whose profits have increased by 39% in 2010, pay little to no taxes. In Wisconsin, two-thirds of corporations pay no taxes, and part of our current budget hole is due to the $117 million corporate tax cut passed by the Republicans.⁴

Republicans tend to heavily call for the elimination of ‘death tax,’ their hyped-up name for the inheritance tax. The inheritance tax affects only those who received inheritance over $5 million dollars at the federal level, and only 1.6% of Americans receive more than $100,000.⁵

Taxes have continuously been cut for the wealthy and corporations, more than for the middle class and the poor. The bottom 20% pay 16% of their income in taxes, the next 20% pay 20.5%, the next 20% pay 25.3%, the next 20% pay 28.5%. This makes up the bottom 80% of people.⁶

Now it gets interesting. The next 10% (making around $100k/year), pay 30.2%, the next 5% pay 31.2%, the next 4% pay 31.6%, and the top 1% of the population, taking in an average of $1.3 million a year, pay a 30.8% income tax. You will note that in the top 19% of the population the increase in the percent of income taxed is almost flat, and that the top 1% pay about the same amount of tax as those making $100k, less than what those just below them pay.⁷

Why all these numbers? Why the reference to the French Revolution?

To show a few stark realities: ‘trickle down economics’ is a fraudulent policy that aims at consolidating wealth, the United States is driven by capitalism and not democracy, and that the wealthy have been engaging in class warfare for some time already.

The wealthy, including corporations (which according to law and the Supreme Court are people—wait until they have voting rights), are and have been forming a fascist oligarchy. They only care about profit, their wealth, and their power, and they don’t care what happens to the rest of us.

They have waged a war of propaganda, convincing millions of working-class Americans to support them while they strip away rights and increase the financial burden of the poor. They have slowly broken the unions that built this country to limit organized resistance to their advance.

Deregulation led to the current financial collapse, which affects the poor far more than it affects the wealthy. ‘Trickle down economics’ has led to the rich consolidating and becoming richer while the poor become poorer.

With the wide gap in wealth distribution, the demise of unions, the rising price of food⁸, and the vast expenditures to benefit corporations and the wealthy (labeled as ‘tax cuts,’ not spending), the current situation in the United States reminds me rather much of France in 1789.

The wealthy and the conservatives have been fighting this class war already. Meanwhile, union membership has dropped from 45% of workers in 1950 to 7% today.

Those who are complaining about the benefits and wages of union workers, know this: it is not the unions’ fault, it is yours. You have not organized.

The only way to defeat oligarchy is for the people to fight back. The 80% of this country who are downtrodden and poor need to rise up and declare that the people rule this country, not the wealthy and the corporations.

What we have seen in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Wisconsin, and elsewhere is the realization of people that they hold the power in the social contract. Many of these battles have just begun, and all are far from over.

The wealthy have been waging class warfare for decades, convincing the people that their best interests were served by the wealthy being wealthier.

Now the people have begun to wake up, and it is time for the people to fight.

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¹ http://www.suite101.com/content/the-estates-general-a51288 Retrieved 2011-2-21.
² http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html Retrieved 2011-2-21.
³ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/15/less-than-half-of-america_n_498943.html Retrieved 2011-2-21.
⁴ http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/whats-really-at-stake-in.html Retrieved 2011-2-21.
⁵ http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html Retrieved 2011-2-21.
⁶ ibid.
⁷ ibid.
⁸ http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm Retrieved 2011-2-22.

“We all have to suffer”

 

“First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
                                       -Martin Niemöller¹

I’ve seen many people speak against the protesters and public workers in Wisconsin by saying ‘in this economy we all have to suffer.’

It’s true, we are all suffering. And most public workers (my family included) probably saw the increase in what they pay for their healthcare, pension, and other benefits coming. It was a pretty obvious move for Governor Walker.

This change represents a 7% pay cut for most public employees in Wisconsin². It is a falsehood that public employees have ‘paid nothing’ for their benefits. Generally speaking, public employees work for far lower wages than a private sector counterpart, and part of the exchange is the improved benefits. You can look at what a teacher makes, and decide for yourself.

And this is not necessarily the ‘only option’ that Governor Walker makes it out to be³. Other states have had similar issues and have come up with different solutions⁴.

This, however, is not the real issue. The real issue is the undermining of the basic rights of the citizens of this state.

Article 23, Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
(3). Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4). Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.⁵

It’s true, Scott Walker is not denying the ability to join a union, but he is taking away the fundamental power that a union has—the power of collective bargaining.

Without collective bargaining, a union only has one big option—to walk out, to strike. And this is not the best option for anyone—the state, the workers, or the people. And by law, public employees are prohibited from striking.⁶

And if you think that Scott Walker is only coming after the public employees, or that he’s only coming after the unions, you are mistaken.

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¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came... Retrieved 2011-2-16.
²http://www.nytimes.com/chrome/#/a/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/us/17wisconsin.html Retrieved 2011-2-16.
³ http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/15/scott-walker/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-says-alternative-state-/ Retrieved 2011-2-16.
4 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/15/AR2011021504339.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 Retrieved 2011-2-16.
⁵ http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml Retrieved 2011-2-16.
⁶ http://host.madison.com/article_194318e4-3a2b-11e0-86bd-001cc4c002e0.html Retrieved 2011-2-16.

Protest Resources–Oust Governor Walker

 

Here are some great resources for everyone to use:

1. You can call the Governor’s office at 608-266-1212. It will say the voice message box is full. Just keep on the line as long as you can and it should go to a live person. Otherwise, keep trying to call back as you have time.
   
2. You can call 1-877-753-5578 to get in touch with your state representatives. Many message boxes are also full here, but keep trying!
   
3. NotMyWisconsin is largely a way to sign up for action alerts. scottwalkerwatch.com is another good resource, though it seems to be down right now.
   
4. There are many Facebook groups, 540,000 To See Scott Walker out of WI, January 2012 and Recall of Governor Scott Walker seem to be good ones.
   
5. My.Madison is a great place to get current local news about the situation.
   
6. As an alternative to calling (though calling is what we need right now), you can find out who your state legislators are and their contact, including email will be listed. Please write and keep writing!
   
7. Many hashtags are floating around out there for Twitter. Mine is #OustGovWalker, others include #NotMyWI, #WIUnion, #SolidarityWI, and #KillTheBill

Solidarity Forever.

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Oust Governor Scott Walker

 

"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all." –Mario Savio¹

Solidarity to all those protesting Dictator Walker. We can't take 4 more years of his unilateral actions against the people of his state.

In 1911, Wisconsin became the very first state to enact workers compensation protections. In 1932 Wisconsin was the first state to enact unemployment compensation. And in 1959, Wisconsin was one of the first to enact a collective bargaining law for public employees.²

“Seven killed were on May 5, 1886 by state militia who fired into a crowd of 1,500 workers marching peacefully on behalf of the eight-hour day toward the Bay View Rolling Mills on Milwaukee’s lakefront.”³

Scott Walker has threatened the peaceful protests against his policies with the Wisconsin National Guard. This would be the first time the National Guard would be ordered against the citizens of this nation since 1968.

Scott Walker is a dictator. He enacts sweeping legislation from the executive branch, in violation of his constitutional mandate. When the people cry out against him, he threatens them with military reprisal.

This must end. We cannot lie down and let Scott Walker destroy everything the people of this state have worked for for the last hundred years.

I call upon the people of this state to sign a Recall Petition to oust Governor Scott Walker. Within 60 days of registering such a petition, we would need to gather at least 533,287 signatures.⁴ I think there’s about 175,000 state and public workers who would be with me.

Unfortunately, we must wait until one year after he took office. In January 2012 I trust that such a petition will be circulated.

In the mean time, do what you can to “put your bodies upon the gears and upon the levers.”

And you must write letters, as many as you can, to your state representatives and to the governor’s office stating your views. Email is okay, but I would much rather flood the mail with letters of outrage against this dictator. On Twitter I am using the tag #OustGovWalker, and I encourage everyone to use it as well.

Solidarity Forever.

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¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Savio Retrieved 2011-02-16.
² http://www.wisconsinlaborhistory.org/?page_id=34 Retrieved 2011-02-16.
³ ibid.
⁴ http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=11827&locid=47 Retrieved 2011-02-16.

Barack Obama Deserves the Peace Prize

I, like many others, was a little surprised by the news that Barack Obama was named the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Many people's reaction has been, "But what has he done?"

I will tell you, in the form of the press release from the Nobel Prize Committee:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

So, in the words of the committee itself, they awarded the Peace Prize to Mr. Obama for making substantial gains in the diplomatic process, giving people hope, and beginning work towards various peaceful goals, including nuclear disarmament.

Let me step away from achievements, for a moment, to answer another fast criticism of this award. Many have pointed out that the nominations for this prize were due to be postmarked by Feb. 1st, 2009, exactly 12 days after the President took office. So, people have concluded (erroneously) that Mr. Obama received this award before taking virtually any steps as President of the United States. I would like to point out to the world that a nomination is only a nomination. Obviously, someone had high hopes for what Mr. Obama could accomplish in this year, and yes, maybe they submitted the nomination for political reasons. However, I assert that the Nobel Prize Committee is not peopled by idiots or fanboys. I have extremely high respect for their organization, and I hope that you do too.

The Nobel Peace Prize, from the will of Mr. Nobel himself, is to be given to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The Prize committee, in making its decision, was looking into the last 8 months of the presidency, and not the first 12 days. There were very many nominations for this prize, in fact the most nominations ever. I assert that if they believed that Mr. Obama had not made progress promoting "fraternity between nations" etc. they would have picked one of the other 204 nominees. The list is secret for the next 50 years, but I think we can trust there were some good names on it.

So, has President Obama signed a large peace accord, as President Wilson did before winning the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize? No. Did he help to negotiate peace between two major countries at war, as President Roosevelt did to win the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize? No. I believe, however, that he has made great strides in promoting "fraternity between nations," at the least.

In very short order, President Obama changed the foreign policy of the United States from strong-arm unilateralism to broad-based diplomacy. He immediately appointed important envoys and began new peace talks, including being the first President to open meaningful peace talks with Iran, which, although rocky and far from over, have dramatically improved the relationship between our countries. He made steps to bring our country back under the codes of conduct laid out in the Geneva Convention. He restarted nuclear disarmament talks with Russia, this time, unlike his predecessors, negotiating for a stronger reduction. He paid our debt to and reopened meaningful interaction with the United Nations. And he told the world that not only would we not take unilateral actions, but that we also require the aid of other countries in order to move forward towards peace and disarmament.

Perhaps, in this great century, the people need a flashy achievement. The 2009 Physics Prize, essentially awarded for the invention of fiber optic communication, is pretty cool, as well as immediately tangible. Peace, however, is rarely flashy. Peace is shaped through long negotiation, nurtured by building trusting relationships with sovereign nations, and enacted through policy change.

I do not deny the unbelievable work of people who, every day, all over the world, are working in immediately tangible ways to improve life and promote peace. Yes, these people are extremely deserving of praise. When you look at the wording and the purpose of this particular recognition, however, you find a description of the 'big picture.' Without belittling the work of so many, this particular prize exists for a different reason.

The Nobel Prize Committee, and the Nobel Prizes themselves, exist to encourage and inspire as much as they exist to reward notable achievements. Countless times they have been awarded for progress, and progress surely has been made.

Mr. Obama said this morning that he did not feel he deserved the prize. Mr. President, I must respectfully disagree. Your contribution to the global peace process is already irrefutable, brought forth largely from a willingness to talk and to listen, and to treat other nations with their due respect. You have brought hope to not only the millions in your country, but to billions around the world. We see you as a leader who one day may bring to this Earth a new era, and we hope. Where once we saw immovable obstacles, you have changed the international political dynamic to be a place where diplomacy and cooperation can work.

Mr. President, on behalf of myself, and others whose voices may not be heard this day, I thank you for all you have done already, and I look forward to watching you change the world.