Workers Solidarity Movement

For three weeks, until ordered to leave by a judge Thursday, up to tens of thousands of union protesters have been occupying the Wisconsin Capitol building in Madison.  They are protesting the attempt by Scott Walker, the new Republican governor, to all but eliminate collective bargaining for public unions in the US state.  Wisconsin is the battleground against the latest wave of anti-union law in the USA.

The past half century has seen the union movement in the United States suffer defeats and alarming contractions. The big US labour federation AFL-CIO has seen its numbers drop from 15 to 12 million in a time period that has seen the workforce double. Whereas 1 in 4 workers was in a union in the early sixties, nowadays the figure is 1 in 8; of these, only 1 worker in 15 is unionised among private sector workers while the corresponding figure is one third for public sector workers.

What saw private sector union density fall so dramatically? The answer to that is relentless and effective class war, a union-breaking agenda prosecuted by private industry with the backing of neo-liberal government policies, particularly since the Reagan years. With worker organisations rendered docile in private industry it's probably not surprising that government workers would eventually face attack and this has come to pass over recent weeks. The state of Wisconsin has become the site of this very high profile showdown; the conservative governor there has been trying to introduce harsh new laws which would seriously harm public sector unions, laws which amount to an outright attack on workers rights. Under these proposals state employees would lose the right to bargain collectively, union dues would become voluntary and wouldn't be deducted from pay cheques, unions would face a recertification vote every year with the union needing to win the votes of a majority of employees and not just of those voting.  

Naturally enough, workers in Wisconsin saw this for the full-on attack on conditions that it is and responded with an energy and power that few might have believed they carried. A more than two week occupation of the capitol building and three protests of tens of thousands have been part of the colourful and vigorous resistance to the union-breaking efforts. The workers struggle in Wisconsin has attracted enormous publicity and a huge solidarity effort from across the US and beyond. It's been a chance for workers to feel their own power and to have conversations about workplace resistance, direct action and the general strike. This    particular union struggle is essentially defensive but its power is that of example and of inspiration, of learning the (often forgotten) skills needed for effective workplace resistance. Winning these struggles is another important skill and it will be interesting to see if the Wisconsin workers can press on and use the impetus gained so far to achieve a landmark victory.

WORDS:Eugene