How Can We Defeat Scott Walker? [View All]

[Orlandodem]

http://socialistworker.org/2011/03/04/how-can-we-defeat-walker

SNIP

LARGE AND energetic demonstrations by union members and their allies against the governor's union-busting continue in Madison, Wis., with protesters attempting to swarm into the locked-down Capitol building in evening protests on March 1 and again on March 3.

Yet each day that the battle in Wisconsin drags on, a question looms ever larger: does labor have a strategy to win? Are union leaders prepared to follow up the teachers' sick-ins that first spurred the mass protests with larger and more audacious job actions?

For his part, Republican Gov. Scott Walker is digging in. He has refused labor leaders' offers of concessions and is ramping up the pressure on unions and their supporters by threatening both the layoff of 1,500 workers and the cancellation of statewide labor contracts March 13. A the same time, he's presided over the virtual lockdown of the Capitol building, all but ending the popular occupation of the "people's house."

Meanwhile, copycat legislation is advancing in other states, with Ohio legislators poised to gut the rights of public-sector unions as well.

When first confronted with Republican Gov. Scott Walker's "budget repair bill" that would gut collective bargaining, cripple the unions financially and impose higher benefit costs on workers, the unions responded with a dramatic and powerful job action--a sick-in by teachers, starting in Madison on February 17.