Views in brief
A rising tide of struggle
NO MATTER how much the corporate media try to hide it, the wave of workers' struggle for real democracy is clearly rising around the world.
The Egyptian Revolution has inspired workers and students in Wisconsin to massive demonstrations of solidarity with public-sector workers under attack by Gov. Scott "Hosni" Walker and the Republican state legislature. That struggle in Madison inspired some 450 workers and students to rally on February 22 on the steps of City Hall in Springfield, Mass.--long a demoralized area with tiny pockets of prosperity surrounded by urban blight.
Union representatives, rank-and-file union members and student activists addressed the rally, arguing that the attacks on public-sector workers in Wisconsin and Ohio are part of a larger attack on our human rights to organize and bargain collectively. They called for organized expressions of solidarity with workers in Wisconsin and Ohio.
It was by far the biggest, most militant rally I've attended in Springfield in more than 15 years of political activism in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts.
Less than two dozen "Tea-hadists" (Tea Partiers) stood across the street, flaunting "Don't Tread on Me" flags and brazenly bigoted signs.
As you might expect, the local Fox News station, reflecting its corporate interest in bigoted and biased coverage, sent reporters who spent at least as much time interviewing the Tea Party knuckle-draggers as they did talking to the overwhelming majority of working people on the other side of the street.
I tell everyone I meet who is looking for clear reportage and analysis of the current wave of workers' struggles that generalizes its lessons for working people and their families that the best way to start your day is reading SocialistWorker.org.
Mark Clinton, Holyoke, Mass.
The bosses' declaration of war
IN RESPONSE to "Class war in Wisconsin": A thousand thanks for your coverage of the new front in this war on workers.
I am a teacher. I was in Madison on Sunday, February 13, when there were about 100 of us. I returned again on that Friday with about 40,000 of my colleagues and our supporters. I was there February 19 with what the national press estimates at 70,000 people.
Still, I can assure you that we are losing this battle. I am writing to urge those who have a stake in this larger war not to lose heart if we probably lose this battle in the state assembly. The Republican oligarchs are not going to stop fighting after this; they know they're just beginning.
So please, friends and colleagues, you must not give up either. The ruling class has been fighting a clandestine war for decades: we should be take heart that there has finally been an official declaration of their war against the working class.
Their declaration of war can only aid the organization of a viable resistance movement. I will be proud if the International Socialist Organization can be a part of that resistance. Again, thank you.
Charles Patten, Wausau, Wis.
Defend Eric-Michael Wilson
IN RESPONSE to "UC tries to prosecute dissent": Thank you for posting this very critical important story.
My family and I feel very badly towards Eric-Michael Wilson, the young man who is being obviously railroaded by some seemingly corrupt police and prosecutors. The video should clearly show what really happened as the young man claims and should well prove his innocence.
What prompted me to write a response to this article is that I just happened to have recently watched a great documentary on the University of California-Berkeley and how it contributed so heavily towards the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam war movement, LGBT rights movement, and other critical issues. The entire modern "protest" movement was created on this campus.
From the very start of the 1960s, this very campus was the number one place in the U.S. where Americans were standing up for the rights of all and protesting against corruption, war, racism and bigotry--and even the very biased incorrect version of history being taught across this country.
At that time, there was no other place in the U.S. more vital to social change, and the campus helped beyond measure to make the U.S. what it later was, and to some extent still is today.
The mere idea that a person could voice a dissenting opinion for free speech and education on this "hallowed" ground and be arrested for it shows how far this once great nation has fallen, and how evil has taken over parts of our government and law enforcement.
Growing up in the South as a white man, I can clearly understand how this could well be racially related as well. Racism still goes on in the South, in the same basic manner it did 40 years ago. The difference is only that they have more creative ways of hiding it than before. I have had the misfortune to see this evilness from the time I was a toddler. (I just vaguely remember the separate "white "and "colored" bathrooms in Baton Rouge, La.)
For years, I have deeply regretted that the wonderful freedom movements of the 1960s lost steam in the 1970s, and that we fell into the "me" generation of the 1980s.
This story is like a lightning rod to me. It's a wake-up call as to just how wrong things are in the U.S. and how we need to get back to those glory days of "in the street" protests and making our opinions heard.
This story will probably never get the nationwide outrage it truly deserves, yet this story to me is equally as important as the fabulous union protests going on in Wisconsin, Ohio and, soon, every other state in the Union. At stake here is not only the very first right guaranteed by our government, the right to free speech. This case also violates the basic principles of enforcement of the laws under which we are governed.
For this to have gotten to this point takes not only cops who are willing to lie in court and on police reports, but also prosecutors willing to do all they can to protect and enable the cops, as well as the university officials.
That means that this has become "institutionalized" just as it was in the bad old days before Berkeley became a center for the rallying cry for freedom and peace. California has long been a beacon for freedom-loving and peaceful-minded folks, yet something is awfully wrong with this scenario.
Let's wake up folks and get back to joining arm-and-arm for the good of us all--before it becomes impossible to do.
Sterling Voth, Baton Rouge, La.
Ontario's attack on public workers
IN RESPONSE to "In defense of public-sector unions": Wisconsin is not the only place where labor is under attack. The Ontario government is about to table legislation to make the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) an "essential service." This would make strikes illegal.
Both the governing Liberal Party and the opposition Conservatives say that the legislation will become law before the end of March, when the TTC contract expires and the workers will be in a strike position if a new deal is not struck. The socialist New Democratic Party, part of the opposition, says it wants more details and discussion before a vote takes place.
Ontario and Wisconsin are part of the worldwide attack on unions and collective-bargaining agreements. All workers must stand together against this renewed attack on the public sector unions because, if we don't, private-sector unions will be next.
First you--then me. No one is safe.
Anonymous, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
