What's happening now in Wisconsin, with thousands of workers flooding the Capitol to protest Gov. Scott Walker's move to snuff the collective bargaining power of public employees, is much more than backlash against a union-busting maneuver, labor activists and their supporters said Tuesday evening at a forum at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Madison.
It is, they insist, the first counter-strike in a class war being waged against workers.
The urgency for reform of an economic system that enriches the few from the labor of the many was a recurring theme as some 100 workers and friends gathered to pledge mutual support and strategize on how to build on the momentum loosed at the historic Capitol rally earlier in the day that drew more than 10,000 demonstrators.
Their weapons?
Protests, sit-ins, filibusters, work stoppages, boycotts of businesses that support Walker's legislation or that funded his candidacy. Civil disobedience. And most potent of all: Solidarity!
"What's happening now is political theater — let's keep it going as long as possible," said Scott Erlenborn, a Baptist pastor.
Republican leaders in the Assembly and Senate report that they have the votes to pass the governor's Budget Repair Bill, which he says is aimed at a $137 million deficit in the current fiscal year. A vote could take place as early as Thursday.
Several speakers at the Orpheum Tuesday conceded that the GOP majority has the votes to pass the bill, including Lester Pines, a Madison attorney who has represented many public workers.
rest at http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/grassroots/article_b8243b38-398f-11e0-a7bd-001cc4c03286.html
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