Wisconsin Teachers Will Teach By Day, Protest By Night as Solidarity Spreads Across Nation

[kpete]

Source: Firedoglake

Wisconsin Teachers Will Teach By Day, Protest By Night as Solidarity Spreads Across Nation
By: David Dayen Sunday February 20, 2011 5:05 pm

Mary Bell, the President of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, just announced that teachers across the state will return to work on Monday, instead joining protests at night in their communities. Teachers, and in many cases their students, have been at the forefront of the protests in the state capital, Madison. Local school districts have been shut for up to three days as teachers demonstrated against a measure to strip their collective bargaining rights. The entire statement is at the end of this piece.

Bell reiterated that the employees she represents have agreed to Governor Walker’s cutbacks in pension and health care benefits. Those are the only actual fiscal issues affecting state workers in the budget repair bill. But public employees refuse to accept the loss of their rights as workers. Here’s the key excerpt:

***** Tomorrow they begin again in their schools and classrooms. Their voices will remain strong – and they will continue to be heard wherever and whenever they can. To educators whose contracts do not recognize Presidents’ Day, we call on them to return to duty by day – and find ways to be vocal and visible after their workday is done. To those whose contracts recognize Presidents’ Day as a holiday, we call on them to return to Madison. We send this message to Wisconsin’s educators and parents as a show of good faith. http://www.weac.org/news_and_publications/11-02-20/WEAC_president_talks_about_next_steps.aspx

Read more: http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/02/20/wisconsin-teachers-will-teach-by-day-protest-by-night-as-solidarity-spreads-across-nation/

[snappyturtle]

1. I don't know about this. If the teachers don't return to their classrooms they will

surely be vilified; OTOH they may lose some of their momentum. ???????????

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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[liberation]

16. Wow. The flying monkeys are out en force....

PS. Before you go LOL'ing around, remember: they are laughing AT you, not WITH you. I know, I know... a very "tiny" difference for your brain to process. But give it time...

[SoapBox]

2. Tea Party plan to impersonate union protesters: “Even if it becomes known...

...that we are plants the quotes & pictures will linger as defacto truth.”

http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/02/20/tea-party-plan-to-impersonate-union-protesters-even-if-it-becomes-known-that-we-are-plants-the-quotes-pictures-will-linger-as-defacto-truth/

The lying DirtBaggers, at it again.

Why do they hate America so much?

[plumbob]

5. They are goons and must be dealt with as goons.

I'm quite sure those on site have some notions about this.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[Bozita]

3. The corporate MSM will be on the next plane out of town.

And the pressure on the fucking GOPers will come from ...

[Tansy_Gold]

4. WIMPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fucking wimps.

Thanks for nothing, teachers of Wisconsin, other than getting a lot of hopes up. Go back to your classrooms and your families and your other obligations. Drop in at a rally here or there as you can fit it in your busy schedules, but hey, if you can't make it, we'll understand. We're used to disappointment.

Most here won't say it, and maybe most here won't even agree with me, but you Wisconsin teachers let me down. I thought you were made of stronger stuff.

You knew last week that your contracts didn't allow for strikes. You knew that when you signed the damn things. So why'd you bother with a three day "sick-in"? Was it just fun and games to you? Did you just like all the publicity it brought you? Did you get a kick out of having Ed Schulz there with you, Ed and his "Rush Limbaugh, wrap your fat ass in the flag. . . ." line Friday night?

When Rush calls you a bunch of chickenshits, you won't hear me defending you. You started something but you couldn't finish it. It got bigger than you planned and dragged in a lot of other people, but you don't seem to care much about them, do you.

You got your World Champion Green Bay Packers to come to your support. You got the head of the state patrolmen's union (or whatever it is) to back you to the point of rescinding his endorsement of Walker. People from Egypt were buying you and your supporters pizza.

Oh, I know you weren't alone. I know the firefighters and the police officers, all the state and county and local public employees are in the same situation you are. I know Scott Walker is still a piece of unmitigated shit, a greedy pig with the morals of a pack rat. (Pack rats, for those of you who don't know, are filthy disgusting creatures that surround their nests with garbage and the feces of other animals to keep predators away. They'll drag in anything that isn't nailed down, stuff they have no earthly use for but they have to have it anyway.) All those other public employees supported you while you took the spotlight, and now you're all walking away, going back to your nice little jobs.

At least the air traffic controllers stuck to their guns in 1981.

Of course the air traffic controllers were ultimately all fired, their union destroyed. Do you think by going back to work now, after your brief little show of defiance, you'll have accomplished anything productive? Or will "Imperial" Walker now know for certain than you're spineless wimps who can be manipulated and controlled and bullied to do exactly what he and his Koch-funded bully boys want you to do?

Like the Democrats who had a resounding victory in 2008 and did virtually nothing with it until they lost in 2010, you've squandered your chance. And like the Democrats of 2008, you've also squandered the hopes a lot of people pinned on you.

Maybe the people of Wisconsin will step in and take your places. Maybe those who lost their union jobs when Snap-On shipped production to China will drive from Kenosha to Madison and fill the capitol while you fill out your lesson plans and grade papers at home. Maybe the owners of small retail establishments that were crushed by Walmart will have the time to carry the signs you carried last week.

And maybe the protests and marches organized around the country to show solidarity with you will go on as planned this week and millions will come out to drown the right wing chants that you're freeloaders and loafers.

Maybe you'll prove me wrong. Maybe Wisconsin will prove me wrong. But the state that produced Bob La Follette and Russ Feingold also produced Joseph McCarthy. Let's see who comes out on top this time to carry forward the spirit of Wisconsin.



Tansy Gold

[Dappleganger]

12. Ouch.

Really, really harsh. :(

[dionysus]

18. ROFL. so spaketh the keyboard revolutionary...

sigh

[Tansy_Gold]

19. Did I write anything that wasn't true?

There's a lady, no longer with us, who gets a lot of respect here on DU -- Rosa Parks. But I wonder how many really know what Rosa Parks was all about? I'm sure everyone can tell the story of her getting on the bus and refusing to relinquish her seat to a white man and move to the back of the bus.

But Rosa Parks' action was the BEGINNING, not the end. The 13 months of the Montgomery bus boycott followed her refusal to give up her seat. The boycott was a carefully coordinated effort with a specific, and some thought impossible, objective. And for the most part, it was people who had the least who gave up the most and stuck with their commitment.

Read Taylor Branch's "Parting the Waters." Hell, just read the wikipedia synopsis and understand that the Montgomery bus boycott was well organized, with people dedicated to their objective and willing to work damn hard and take risks to make it happen.

So yeah, I'm a keyboard revolutionary, sitting here in Arizona with no means to get to Wisconsin, but last I knew, words still mattered.


TG

[leftstreet]

20. +1

:thumbsup:

Nicely done

[annm4peace]

6. My mother who was a teacher went on strike for 3 weeks in mid 70's

I guess the labor bosses in DC got to the little bosses in WI. I know it is horrible hard to be on strike. but they need to keep at it.

I hope the teachers and the parents of students change their minds and keep the momentum going.


There might not be another chance like this.



:grouphug: :patriot:

[annm4peace]

8. something to inspire the Teachers to keep their strike going

I saw this and hope it gives the Teachers and other Union stickers inspiration, hope and courage

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/statement-kamal-abbas

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Shiver]

14. Tea Party Patriots?

I thought I smelled something.

Before you get kicked out the door, you should really look into how 'posh' teaching positions really are. We have several teachers here who can tell you how luxurious their lifestyles actually are.

[Bozita]

15. Link please? Can't buy that without a link.

[HDPaulG]

9. Call in sick....

You do not abuse sick days...Bell had to issue that statement not to get sued. I am sure many teacher's will be there tomorrow...As I will be.

[JCMach1]

10. Then the students and the rest of the state need to go on strike to support them

Now is not the time to kowtow to whatever rules the state has. It's the time to resist.

[jtrockville]

17. Can't help but think this will be seen as giving in.