[FR thread] Scott Walker Stands By Claim Reagan's Union-Busting Was 'Most Significant' Foreign Policy Decision
Posted on 03/02/2015 12:15:56 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker compared labor unions to ISIS his audience cheered. At the end of the speech he got a standing ovation, reported FOX News in an article entitled “Walker draws standing ovation in CPAC address”. His wealthy audience hated labor unions that much.
In fact, the 1% despises unions much more than they hate ISIS. Islamic extremists in the Syrian desert pose no threat to anyone in the U.S., while labor unions pose a direct threat to the profits of the super rich.
Conversely, the average U.S. worker has much more to fear from Scott Walker than any knife-wielding Jihadist. For example, Scott Walker is subtly campaigning for president among the elite by bragging about his successful butchering of Wisconsin unions, a model that he and his supporters hope to spread nationally.
Walker is idolized by the super rich for having dismembered Wisconsin unions in a way that recalls Ronald Reagan’s smashing of the PATCO air traffic controllers strike in 1981. The rich view Walker as a Reagan-like messiah who will transform labor relations yet again, giving corporations still more power in relation to the U.S. workforce.
For example, Walker’s anti-union laws have reduced union membership in Wisconsin by 50 percent since he defeated the “Wisconsin Uprising” in 2011, a battle victory that the super rich consider more heroic than the campaigns of any current military general.
The deathblow that Walker delivered to Wisconsin public unions devastated the powerful teacher union that has been the target of the 1% nationally, as reflected in Obama’s anti-union Race to the Top education policies that have weakened teacher unions in every state.
Walker’s stunning 2011 victory has been studied across the country by politicians inspired to follow in Walker’s footsteps by striking at the heart of union power, rather than the decades-long practice of chipping around the edges. The Walker copycat craze was described by the New York Times in an article entitled “Wisconsin’s Legacy for Unions”.
“[Governor Walker] has already emboldened other Republican-controlled states to enact measures that weaken unions and cut benefits. Tennessee and Idaho passed laws that cut back bargaining rights for public schoolteachers… Even longtime union strongholds like Michigan and Indiana have enacted right-to-work laws that undercut private-sector unions…”
Now the Illinois Governor, Bruce Rauner, is imitating Walker by signing an executive order that would cripple public sector unions in his state, which includes a direct attack on the very powerful Chicago Teachers Union. The president of the Chicago Teacher’s Union, Karen Lewis, recently called the Illinois governor “Scott Walker on steroids.”All the conditions for a Wisconsin-like clash in Illinois have been set.
Scott Walker himself discussed the national significance of his actions in Wisconsin. Fox News would quote him on February 9 as saying:
“I’m at the top of the list of people they’d [labor unions] have on a platter. Not just for retribution, but they understand that if they could take me out [electorally], it would send a very powerful message to other governors and other mayors. But if we’re able to win again in a tough, evenly divided battleground state, that would send another message — that you can take on some of these issues and still survive.”
Walker is right. He struck at the heart of union power and won. The union’s blinked first. And Walker wants to take the Wisconsin model nationwide. In the same speech that Walker compared unions to ISIS he said:
“If we can do it in Wisconsin, there’s no doubt we can do it across America.” He was talking about crushing unions, and his wealthy audience cheered wildly.
But Walker isn’t resting on his laurels after crushing Wisconsin unions. Now that he’s unofficially running for president he has to maintain his anti-union momentum, to convince the rich that he’ll continue his “bold” anti-worker agenda if elected. Walker has thus voiced support of new Wisconsin legislation that would eviscerate what little power Wisconsin unions have left.
The New York Times acknowledged the political motive for Walker’s new attack on Wisconsin unions in an article entitled “Scott Walker Is Set to Deliver New Blow to Labor in Wisconsin”.
“As Mr. Walker builds a presidential run on his effort to take on unions four years ago, he is poised to deliver a second walloping blow to labor.”
Scott Walker, however, can’t be blamed for everything. Wisconsin unions are not mere victims, but powerful actors that pursued bad strategy. When the unions were mobilizing hundreds of thousands of supporters alongside an activated rank and file, they backed down from Walker instead of organizing mass civil disobedience or advocating a general strike.
Instead, Wisconsin unions wasted their momentum by collecting signatures for a recall election, where they backed an anti-union Democrat against Walker. Surviving the re-call election further empowered Walker and weakened the unions.
And the unions were weakened even further recently when Walker won his re-election campaign. Yet again, the Wisconsin unions threw their weight behind an uninspiring corporate Democrat, who completely ignored union issues in her losing campaign that wasted enormous union resources. The Wall Street Journal correctly noted in an article entitled “Wisconsin Race Signals Historic Shift In Power of Unions” that the recent Wisconsin gubernatorial election signaled “a historic shift in the power of unions,” exposing the weakness of their political strategy.
Scott Walker’s new anti-union attack in Wisconsin has provoked fresh calls for a general strike to stop the legislation, reported The Daily Kos in an article entitled “Wisconsin workers call for general strike after legislature pushes right-to-work vote”
If Wisconsin unions have the organizational power to win a general strike they should immediately begin preparations for it. However, it’s unclear if the rump that remains of the Wisconsin movement is organized enough to win a general strike, and losing one would certainly encourage Walker to napalm what remains of the Wisconsin labor movement.
Scott Walker and his followers have made it clear: they are declaring total war on unions, who can either fight back or accept their fate. The labor movement must engage its rank and file over a national discussion on fighting back and strategy.
Many unions remain suicidally content with burying their heads in the sand and hoping the attackers go away. Other unions, however, are taking powerful, pro-active steps to defend themselves.
SEIU, for example, was one of the Wisconsin unions in 2011 that got their teeth kicked in. Consequently they initiated a national campaign for “$15 and a union,” a masterstroke that has directly led to thundering union victories in Seattle and San Francisco that won a citywide $15 minimum wage. Such a campaign is now being mimicked statewide by Oregon’s labor movement, reported Counterpunch on January 28.
The $15 campaign has inspired low wage workers across the country, making the West Coast unions less vulnerable to “right to work” legislation, since an active and strong labor movement is itself a repellent to anti-union attacks. The $15 campaigns have arguably been the biggest victories for unions in decades, especially given the current political climate. These unions have dominated the public political discussion and multiplied the popularity of unions in the broader community.
Also critically important are the actions of unions across the country that are building political programs such as “labor candidate schools,” where union members are being trained and encouraged to run for office. Ohio unions showed the potential of such a strategy by running for and winning several elections against Democrats, prompting calls for the creation of a labor party. This is crucially important given the events in Wisconsin, where unions tied their fate to the Democrats, who dragged the unions underwater in losing campaigns that wasted millions of their members’ money.
The U.S. labor movement has reached a historic crossroads, as labor relations in the United States are undergoing dramatic, sudden shifts. The only way to answer the aggressiveness of Scott Walker and his clones is by aggressively throwing counter punches that mobilize union members and the community. The Steelworkers union is waging its first strike in decades and other unions must re-learn how to effectively organize lest they die without a fight.
[FR thread] Scott Walker Stands By Claim Reagan's Union-Busting Was 'Most Significant' Foreign Policy Decision
Wow. Walker sounds pretty awesome.
“SEIU, for example, was one of the Wisconsin unions in 2011 that got their teeth kicked in.”
....and they filed and unfair labor practice lawsuit because kicking teeth in is THEIR job.
This author is a douche. I am not part of the 1% and I despise unions. I hope he gets elected and makes fedgov unions illegal as they should be. I can just imagine the whining now.
This union activist, aka a journalist, is trying to mimic and roll back Ronald Reagan's success.
This is a good read: The GE Years: What Made Reagan Reagan ".....A slick monthly magazine often tied Reagan’s GE Theater news to ideological messages. And a defense quarterly, featuring GE’s efforts in the field, was enhanced by commentary from leading experts (e.g. well-known academics and occasional Cabinet officials) on military and geopolitical matters. The evidence is compelling that Reagan read all of these. The frequent question periods after his talks with GE workers insured that he would be asked about them. They influenced his foreign policy as well as his domestic views. An article in the defense quarterly presaged the Reagan Doctrine and contains the earliest mention of what later became the strategic defense initiative.
The subject matter of the publications ranged from narrow employment issues (“How Big Are General Electric Profits – Are They Too Big?” “Why the company can expect union officials to ‘demand’ a strike from them”) to broader economic concerns (“Let’s Learn from Britain”--which concerned the failures of socialism and a government-run medical profession--and “What is Communism? What is Capitalism? What is the Difference to You?”). The folly of many government programs and the negative consequences of burdensome taxation were frequent topics. The book clubs of employees and their spouses spent thirteen weeks discussing Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt or How You Really Earn Your Living by Lewis Haney and other conservative offerings.
In time, Lemuel Boulware and GE CEO Ralph Cordiner mounted a national grass roots campaign, recruiting major corporate allies, creating schools where GE employees and others could learn the fundamental political skills to win elections, developing shareholder lists for political mailings, and turning GE workers into “communicators” and “mass communicators” (Boulware’s words) who could spread the message of free persons and free markets to a decisive number of local voters. In the course of this Ronald Reagan was taken out of the plants and put on what he called “the mashed potato circuit” of civic forums largely in the south and smaller states, often towns where GE dominated the economy, where he would be most effective. In due course, the “great communicator” was born. In today’s parlance, most of these states turned from blue to red......"
Julie would disagree -- Watch [and giggle] 3 minutes of a confused liberal, who wonders why there were STAND WITH WALKER lawn signs in poor neighborhoods, then she gets into guns and religion.....
Some of Reagan's main themes and source of his success:
Lower taxes
Face down unions
End the Cold War [SDI]
And we all knew he loved America!
Scott Walker is cut from the same cloth.
all those words come down to this.” For example, Walker’s anti-union laws have reduced union membership in Wisconsin by 50 percent since he defeated the “Wisconsin Uprising” in 2011, a battle victory that the super rich consider more heroic than the campaigns of any current military general.”
People opted out. They weren’t forced. All the arguments in the world can’t get past that.
Spot on!
The GOLD STAR take away.
The rank and file removed the chains of union bosses. They voted. They keep their money. They earn their jobs. The economy grows. Dependence on government weakens.
I had to supervise Union thugs (Teamsters) for decades before moving on.
There is typically a percentage of whom are absolutely devoted to that gang of rogues who simply refuse to behave reasonably or rationally consistently. The threat of violence, usually against non conforming ‘brothers’ is enduring. Most members in my experience are regular working people who simply pay their dues and get their work done.
For those few, the union is akin to their religion, and they are absolute cultists.
More frightening to me however is the union movement in the public sector. These groups are fundamentally undermining the country with their antics but mostly their completely unsustainable benefits and pension plans.
There is absolutely no valid reason that government employees should be involved with organized labor. Politicians who agree to deal with these groups should be tarred and feathered.
bttt!
...........Getting back to those pesky facts, it is important to keep updating the progress of real per capita disposable personal income, per capita GDP, and total GDP over the course of the Reagan and Obama administrations......
Do these people not notice Detroit?
This Ronald Reagan speech is as true today as it was in 1964.
the real issue is, the one the people leaching off the workers refuse to admit, is that unions have succeeded. If you agree with that premise then theres no reason for their jobs. If there are no jobs for them there are no perks to hand out.
Theres no doubt ( though some here have argued otherwise) that there was a time and place for unions. Look no further than coal miners. There are laws protecting workers here that no politician will ever overturn. In truth theres still a need for unions but not in this nation. Try Pakistan or China or India. In this nation they did their job. Now they’re overstaying their welcome.
CPAC the 1%?
Somehow I doubt it.
The folks who own the Democrat party?
Yeah. That’s the 1%.
wow!!!!
Do these people not notice what has happened to NJ?
I have no problem with private sector workers organizing; that is their right, and they reap the benefits (and consequences) of exercising that right. I have a huge problem with government employees strangling the taxpayers (and eventually the whole state); too often they themselves don’t pay for that damage directly, while the state dies a slow death.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.