Tens of Thousands Protest Against Anti-Union Bill in Wisconsin

Around 30,000 people took part in a massive protest against Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's attempt to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers. A variety of working people, students, religious leaders, and community members marched around the state Capitol building in Madison.

This is the second protest, with more expected this week. 10,000 to 15,000 people were present at the previous protest. In the days leading up to the protests, action against Walker's anti-union bill was taken by thousands of high school students who walked out of schools across the state.

The Wisconsin Joint Committee on Finance ended public debate last night, cutting out the chance for many concerned people to express their opinions on Walker's anti-union bill.

A series of television propaganda advertisements have been run by the right-wingers of Wisconsin in an attempt to pit private sector workers against those of the public sector. The propaganda attempts to convince the private sector employees that state employees have things better than they do. What the propaganda fails to say, however, is when public sector unions fight for better rights and benefits, it puts pressure on private sector employers to give their employees similar benefits. A victory for one is a victory for all in the same sense that an injury to one is an injury to all.

Walker's bill does not apply to firefighters and police because their unions supported him in the last election, but police and firefighters showed up anyway to speak out against governor Walker. It is clear that he is trying to get the support of the police so he can use them to carry out massacres against striking unions. He has also built up the National Guard for this same purpose. Throughout the history of the US as a whole and Wisconsin alone, we have seen the police and the National Guard used in such a fascist manner. Because of this, Scott Walker has been dubbed "Hosni Walker" after Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Pharaoh Walker is attempting to get his bill pushed through by the end of the week. The reason Wisconsin is facing financial problems is because the state government has sided with corporations who don't want to pay taxes and have overseas bank accounts. Some of these corporations have never hired a single worker in the state, but still have financial interests there. Wisconsin has lower corporate taxes than the surrounding states. Taxing them is what would be best for the local economy.