Paul Beckett : Letter from Wisconsin

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett concedes defeat in Milwaukee, June 5, 2012. Photo by John Gress / Reuters.
After the apocalypse:
Letter from Wisconsin

Frankly, putting it all together, I am very worried about our future, in Wisconsin and in the nation.

By Paul Beckett / The Rag Blog / June 11, 2012

Dear Friends,

Well, we got your attention, didn’t we? Colbert put it best: the Tuesday, June 5, recall election was the most significant event for Wisconsin since discovery of elastic jeans. (Oh, thank you very much, Stephen!)

The race was called by 9 p.m. (some polling stations were not yet even closed). Governor Scott Walker had won the recall election over Democrat Tom Barrett by 7 percent. Worse, county by county, Wisconsin was a sea of GOP red. Sixty of Wisconsin’s 72 counties were carried by Walker! Only small islands of blue mainly clustered around Madison and Milwaukee, and along the Lake Superior shore (traditionally progressive) showed blue above the red tide.

For the many tens of thousands who had been participants in Madison’s version of the Arab Spring, in February and March (2011), and who had, as unpaid volunteers, collected more than one million signatures for the recall petition, it was a like a hard kick to the gut.

You can’t understand, friends, without knowing what those February and March events were like. Never, in my now pretty-long life, have I experienced the exhilarating sense of the people -- the real people, the whole people -- rising and making democracy real, and direct.

Up to 70,000 at a time packed the Capitol Rotunda, and circled the square. Turnout was largely spontaneous: hierarchy and formal organization largely absent. Anger with the multiple violations of democratic tradition was underlain by a kind of joy which reveled in the sense of commonness, and in the incredible wit of common folks which was displayed on hand-made signs and in slogans.

Inside the rotunda was the beauty of “functioning anarchy” as areas were set aside for families with small children, for eating, for resting. In the enormous and densely packed crowds, neither crime nor violence raised its head.

There was, over all, a sense of irresistibility to this truly popular uprising. Stopping the people so mobilized would be like stopping the flow of the Mississippi on our western border. We thought.

How, on June 5, a little more than a year later, could this defeat have happened?

Friends, if Stephen is right and you all have been watching us, you know a lot of the answer. You know that funding for the Walker side was almost ten times (yes, 10X!) that for the Barrett side. And Walker’s money had come pouring in, mainly from out of state, for months. Totals are almost too obscene for a decent blog to publish (the tracking organization Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimates that the final total will push $80 million!).

The infamous Koch Brothers, along with the whole shadowy neo-con/corporate national leadership, knew that a successful recall would hurt rather seriously their movement to consolidate control over U.S. society, culture and, of course, politics. Money poured in to support the Walker campaign, sometimes in half-million dollar amounts. A sophisticated campaign of TV advertising was launched long before the Democrats even had a candidate.

Meanwhile, there was no real “owner” of the recall effort. If the uprising was largely spontaneous and unfunded, so was the subsequent recall petition drive. Once the million signatures were gathered, we stood and looked at each other. What’s next?

The Democratic Party (state and national) was unenthusiastic at the beginning, and gave tepid support after. There was no obvious candidate besides the one who ran against Walker and lost (by a respectable margin) in 2010. And he –-- Tom Barrett -- could not declare for the race until he had weathered the Milwaukee mayoral election (April 3).

Meanwhile, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk aggressively threw her hat in the ring. She had negotiated her endorsement from the trade union leadership by pledging that if elected she would veto any budget bill that did not restore collective bargaining rights. The unions not only heavily funded her campaign to get the nomination, but actually aired attack ads against Tom Barrett, her most important opponent.

Falk’s “deal” with union leadership was a gift to the Walker side, which had constantly characterized the uprising as only about union rights and as “run by union bosses.”

In the primary, on May 8, Barrett easily defeated Falk. But he then had less than a month to counter what was already a steamroller of cash that for months had saturation bombed the brain of every TV watcher in Wisconsin.

Now let me assure you, friends: Barrett is a good man -- tall, good-looking, intelligent, well-spoken, polite, and gracious. His qualifications for the Governorship are excellent. He would surely have been a great candidate some time in the past. (In 2009 Barrett had even displayed old-fashioned personal heroism: he had intervened at the state fair to defend a woman who had called for help and received a lead pipe across the face and a broken hand. In the past, would that have won you a subsequent election or not?)

But Barrett was not the man for 2012. Barrett has a now-unfortunate habit of not talking down to the voters, compounded by a tendency to tell the truth, a political defect made even worse by a predilection toward real discussion of real issues.

Meanwhile, Walker was the perfect neo-con candidate, saying little, generating perfect video image material in the “aw-shucks” mode, while looking like a bashful choir boy (does he have a portrait of himself hidden away in an attic?). Never did Walker stray from the familiar jingles authored by his advertising companies.

Meanwhile national support from the Democratic Party remained minimal, and President Obama made it a point not even to come into the state.

All these facts notwithstanding, the surprise, Tuesday evening, made most of us sick to our stomachs.

There are, of course, different ways to view the events, and they tend to replace each other as time goes on. There is the way you feel the day after (that the sky has fallen). There is the day after the day after. Then, again, there is the day after that. Let’s take them in order.


1. First day after: 'The Apocalypse Is Here'

The election lent itself to apocalyptic thinking on the liberal-progressive side, and triumphalist thinking on the right. Perhaps, we thought, Wisconsin has now completed a gradual transition from marginally blue state to solidly red state. An open Senate seat will be contested in November. It now seems even more likely than before to go to a right-wing Republican (is there anything else these days?) , who will join the right-wing Republican (Ron Johnson) who defeated Senator Feingold in 2010. Barack Obama, who carried Wisconsin in 2008 by an amazing 14%, is now expected to have a hard fight (at best) in the state this fall.

Worse, and more fraught with consequences, the deluge of money from billionaires which funded incessant and ultimately unavoidable “30-second drive-by attack ads” (as candidate Barrett called them) seemed to work. Those of us who hoped there might be some eventual tipping point of excess, some point of overkill, after which the public would react against the perpetrators, came away disappointed. Is the lesson of the Wisconsin recall that you cannot, ever, have too much money, and that NO level of saturation bombing with the ads the money buys is too much? It may be.

If so, in light of the number of right-wing billionaires now at large in America, and the Citizens United decision, American democracy is less imperiled than already destroyed. Political advertising, devised by subtle and well-informed minds, is aimed at dumbing down political culture within a wider American culture already dumbed down remarkably by television.

The problem with where we are now is less with Citizens United and the nearly unbelievable accumulation of wealth available to contribute painlessly to political campaigns. It is more with what the money buys: TV advertising. It punishes depth, it punishes honesty, it punishes creativity and imagination on the part of politicians. It is un-speech which drives out and suppresses real speech.

Political cartoon by Mike Keefe / inToon.com

2. Second day after: 'Hey,Things Could be a Whole Lot Worse'

This, the central philosophy of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, comes forward on the day after the day after. Maybe the defeat was not so crushing, and maybe it doesn’t mean as much as we at first thought.

First of all, we look again at the numbers. It remains true that Walker took 60 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. But guess what? His margin in the vast majority of those counties was thin; in many, razor thin. The counties where his majorities were large to huge were those counties (led by the infamous Waukesha County) which are safe Republican counties in all elections. Walker “flipped” four counties that had gone for Barrett in their first contest (the gubernatorial election in 2010) -- but the “flips” were by modest margins.

Meanwhile Barrett, while losing by about 7 percent overall, managed to “flip” three counties that were taken by Walker in 2010. Turnout was massive on both sides, and Walker received 205,900 more votes overall than he did in 2010. But: Barrett received 158,482 votes more than he had in 2010. Not bad for the victim of a drubbing!

There is another important factor. A significant portion of the pro-Walker vote was motivated by distaste for the recall procedure itself.

It should be acknowledged that this position is not an unreasonable one. All of the elected figures who were subjected to recall elections will be up for regular election in 2014. None of them are (as yet) charged with personal corruption or other illegal activity (although Walker is part of a very slow-moving investigation of illegal activity in his office before his accession to the governorship, and this could result in an indictment later).

Thus, many voters voted against the recall procedure more than for the Walker policy package (or the Walker persona).

It is impossible to say how many voters were so motivated. But it is safe to say that it could represent a substantial portion of Walker’s seven-percent margin.

And as far as the November election goes, exit polls reported by the Washington Post and others showed surprising support for Obama over Romney, even among those who voted for Walker!

So, maybe not so much has changed. As my friend Harry Targ, a frequent contributor to The Rag Blog, has put it:

Wisconsin has [long] been a deeply divided political state. In fact, two important political figures in the state’s history personify the political divisions that shaped competition in the state and the United States at large for at least one hundred years. Senator Joseph McCarthy represented the outlook shared by many that government is the enemy of humankind. . . . And . . . to the contrary, Senators Robert La Follette Senior and Junior represented that strand of political discourse that sees the possibility of creating governmental institutions that can protect the innocent from the criminal, provide for the less fortunate, and use public resources to advance human possibility. Descendants of both political traditions have fought it out over the years . . . (-- Personal communication of unpublished paper, June 7, 2012)

Wisconsin remains divided. This time, it was 1,334,450 for the right, and 1,162,785 for the left. The next time around it could be the other way. The division is probably sharper than any time before. But, hey, things could be a lot worse!

This second-day view leaves us with the idea that given all his advantages, Walker should have won much bigger. Along with that comes the idea that maybe overwhelming monetary advantage is not so decisive, after all.

Students form peace symbol on the floor of rotunda at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison in March 2011. Photo by John Hart / AP / Missourian.

3. Third Day After: 'Actually, Things Could NOT Be a Whole Lot Worse'

Friends, let’s face it. The situation in Wisconsin and the nation is very bad. Electoral analysis (as above) may make us feel a little bit better. But it largely misses the point. The right has been enormously -- and, to my mind -- tragically, successful.

The right has nearly absolute mass media dominance, a financial blank check with no evident limit, unity around central doctrines combined with complete party discipline, control of the Supreme Court, and a noisy and highly active popular movement (the Tea Party) to provide media excitement, and to act as enforcers of party discipline.

The Democratic Party, with none of these, has become a timid shadow of the party of Franklin Roosevelt. All discussion has been skewed far to the right. Legislative party discipline is non-existent. We are engaged only in rear-guard battles, and only in trying to reduce (usually slightly) our losses. Our maximal promises are, well, minimalist.

Some aspects of this have been touched on already. But there is another, deeply disturbing, aspect of the situation. Let me quote a former Madison neighbor, the author Dean Bakopoulos:

As Wisconsin’s new political landscape so clearly indicates, conservatives have now managed to vilify plain old working people as elitist fat cats. Librarians, teachers, public employees, and union laborers: Basically, people who earn health insurance and decent wages have suddenly become the things that stagnate an economy and raise taxes, when in truth they, and those wages they enjoy, have been the lifeblood of a struggling post-industrial economy.

But by declaring war on teachers, union laborers, and public sector employees, the well-heeled spinners behind the rise of Scott Walker have managed to make struggling Americans vote against their own best interests out of a sense of fear and envy. Struggling workers -- and most comfortable middle-class workers -- often to need an identifiable villain, someone who is holding them back from success, in order to vote Republican. If Republicans can present themselves as an enemy of that villain, they win. That’s what happened last night in Wisconsin. (Salon, June 8, 2012)

Frankly, putting it all together, I am very worried about our future, in Wisconsin and in the nation. And the Democratic Party is certainly not going to get us out of this, whatever happens in November.

In fact, dear friends, I can only say we’re in a bad patch, and I think we must look beyond it, beyond November, beyond the Democratic Party, way, way beyond the present. We need to remember that things really don’t need to be this way, that, as the World Social Forum series insists, “Another [and much better!] world is possible.”

Howard Zinn has told us how to think about it:

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

― Howard Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, 1994

OK, dear friends, that’s the news from Lake Wobegon, I mean, Lake Wingra. Stay well, and come visit. The brats and brews are on Kathie and me! And elastic jeans can be found if you need them.

Your friend always,

Paul

[Dr. Paul Beckett lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He can be reached at beckettpa@gmail.com. Read more articles by Paul Beckett on The Rag Blog.]

Go here for Paul Beckett's earlier coverage of the movement in Wisconsin on The Rag Blog.

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Peter Dreier : How the Big Bucks Won in Wisconsin

Walker spent 88% of the money
to get 53% of the vote

The real winner in Wisconsin on Tuesday was not Gov. Scott Walker, but Big Money. And the real loser was not Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, but democracy.

By Peter Dreier / Reader Supported News / June 6, 2012

Here's a headline you won't see, but should: "Scott Walker Spent 88% of the Money to Get 53% of the Vote."

Political pundits will spend the next few days and weeks analyzing the Wisconsin recall election, examining exit polls, spilling lots of ink over how different demographic groups --- income, race, religious, union membership, gender, party affiliation, independents, liberals/conservatives/moderates, etc. -- voted on Tuesday.

But the real winner in Wisconsin on Tuesday was not Gov. Scott Walker, but Big Money. And the real loser was not Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, but democracy.

Walker's Republican campaign outspent Barrett's Democratic campaign by $30.5 million to $4 million -- that's a 7.5 to 1 advantage. Another way of saying this is that of the $34.5 million spent on their campaigns, Walker spend 88% of the money.

Walker beat Barrett by 1,316,989 votes to 1,145,190 votes -- 53% to 46% (with 1% going to an independent candidate).

Here's another way of saying that: Walker spent $23 for each vote he received, while Barrett spent only $3.47 per vote.

But the reality is even worse than this, because the $34.5 billion figure does not include so-called independent expenditures and issue ads paid for primarily by out-of-state billionaires (like the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and Joe Rickets), business groups, and the National Rifle Association, which were skewed even more heavily toward Walker.

Once all this additional spending is calculated, we'll see that total spending in this race could be more than double the $34.5 billion number, that Walker and his business allies outspent Barrett by an even wider margin, and that he had to spend even more than $23 for each vote.

In other words, business and billionaires bought this election for Walker. The money paid for non-stop TV and radio ads as well as mailers. There's no doubt that if the Barrett campaign had even one-third of the war-chest that Walker had, it would have been able to mount an even more formidable grassroots get-out-the-vote campaign and put more money into the TV and radio air war.

Under those circumstances, it is likely that Barrett would have prevailed.

Pundits can have a field day pontificating about the Wisconsin election, but in the end its about how Big Money hijacked democracy in the Badger State on Tuesday, and how they're trying to do it again in November.

[Peter Dreier is E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and director of the Urban Environmental Policy program at Occidental College. He is the co-author of Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century and The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City." He writes regularly for the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and American Prospect. His next book, The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame, will be published by Nation Books in the spring. This article was first published at and distributed by Reader Supported News.]

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Harry Targ : Why Wisconsin is Important

The Capital in Madison, Wisconsin, on Saturday, March 10, 2012. Photo by Barbara Rodriguez / AP. Image from The Nation.
Wisconsin is important

The defeat of Walker and his Republican legislative colleagues will give energy and enthusiasm to grassroots movements... and will prove that people-power can trump money-power.

By Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / May 30, 2012

Progressives look to cities and states that have been models of legislation and activism for inspiration. Of course, East Coasters look to New York City and West Coasters get their ideas from the Bay Area. If you grow up in “the Heartland,” that is the Midwest, you take from the historic example of certain states, such as Wisconsin.

A long time ago a noted political scientist, John Fenton, studied the politics of six Midwestern states, identifying central features dividing them. The so-called “job-oriented states,” Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, were driven by money, power, and politics narrowly defined. The “issue-oriented states,” Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, had a politics that was significantly shaped by political ideologies and the promotion of various progressive values and principles.

Taking Wisconsin as a prime example, the state has historically distinguished itself by recognizing the right of public sector workers to form unions, the election of a Socialist mayor in Milwaukee, and the creation of a viable Progressive Party with presidential candidate Robert La Follette, Sr., winning 17 percent of the vote in 1924 (the state of Wisconsin was carried by candidate La Follette).

Madison, Wisconsin, was one of the homes of the intellectual and activist ferment that became “the 60s.” The “revisionist “school of scholarship concerning the United States as an imperial power was popularized in the history department of the University of Wisconsin. Among those activists that did some reading, William Appleman Williams’ ground-breaking, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, helped to reshape thinking about United States foreign policy.

One of the premier journals of the early New Left, Studies on the Left, was initiated on the Madison campus. In addition, many remember Wisconsin politicians who crossed the line from Democrat to progressive over the years, from William Proxmire to Russ Feingold to Tammy Baldwin.

So watching the rise to power of Scott Walker and a bevy of tea party Republicans in 2010, such that the entire state government apparatus came under their control, was a puzzle to casual Heartland observers. Of course, progressives forget that Wisconsin was also the home of the very popular, at least for a time, Senator Joseph McCarthy who set the standard for public condemnation of those who disagreed with him and his right-wing colleagues and followers. Therefore, like most places, the political landscape in Wisconsin has been contradictory.

The Wisconsin contradiction has been no more glaring than during the time frame from early 2011 until today. The Walker administration, with no effort at dialogue and compromise, signed legislation denying most public sector workers the right to organize. Walker later worked to repeal existing legislation requiring equal pay for women. He, and his Republican legislature, embraced completely the legislative package of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, to reverse the populism that shaped Wisconsin’s political tradition.

Progressive Party presidential candidate Robert La Follette, Sr. Image from the Clarence Darrow Digital Collection / University of Minnesota Law Library.
These moves sparked an enormous outrage and political mobilization of opponents that fundamentally brought the spirit of Arab Spring to the United States. It can fairly be said that there was an inspirational link from Tunisia; Tahrir Square in Egypt; to Madison, Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana; to the Dream Coalition; and most recently to the Occupy Movement. The Wisconsin opposition to the near-fascist agenda of Scott Walker and his minions has essentially “brought the war home,” as a 60s slogan defined it.

But now the passion for fighting back against reaction and moving the country back on the path to progress is being threatened. Just a week from now Wisconsin voters will decide whether the recalled Governor Walker will be reelected or be replaced by Democratic Party challenger Tom Barrett. The polls look like Walker could win reelection.

It is true that the right-wing billionaires -- the Koch brothers and others -- have outspent the Barrett forces 25 to 1. In a capitalist system money talks but money does not always determine the outcome. People-power which led to the recall of Walker in the first place overcame money in April. And people-power must be the main resource if Barrett is to defeat Walker and the right.

However, the national Democratic Party, from the Democratic National Committee, to President Obama, to Vice President Biden, to the Progressive Caucus in the House, should be involved. And it remains a puzzle why Republican governors and billionaires are campaigning in Wisconsin while prominent Democrats are not visible with the exception of former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold.

Progressive forces around the country need to understand that the future of national, as well as state, politics will be affected by the outcome of the Walker/Barrett race. A Barrett victory could begin to reverse the process of assault on public sector unionism (and not just in Wisconsin). A Barrett victory might give energy to those in Wisconsin and all over the country who oppose attacks on public education (K-12, and university levels). A Barrett win would be an important step in the long-term “fight-the right” campaign which will continue even beyond the 2012 presidential election.

Perhaps most important, the defeat of Walker and his Republican legislative colleagues will give energy and enthusiasm to grassroots movements which began in Wisconsin and spread like wildfire around the country. It will prove that people-power can trump money-power. And, it will give proof once again that so-called “inside/outside” strategies remain useful tools for organizing. That is, as progressives build social movements, they use the electoral processes at their disposal to bring alternative visions to the people.

And, it needs to be said that a defeat for reform will be a defeat for progressive forces, not only in Wisconsin but nationally.

[Harry Targ is a professor of political science at Purdue University who lives in West Lafayette, Indiana. He blogs at Diary of a Heartland Radical -- and that's also the name of his new book which can be found at Lulu.com. Read more of Harry Targ's articles on The Rag Blog.]

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Mari Jo and Paul Buhle : Wisconsin's Historic 'Solidarity Sing Along'

Solidarity Sing Along at the Wisconsin State Capitol. Photo from Solidarity Sing Along / Facebook.
The historic Wisconsin 'Solidarity Sing Along'

Dubbed the 'longest continuously running singing protest in history,' the Solidarity Sing Along is about to celebrate its 350th performance.

By Mari Jo and Paul Buhle / The Progressive / April 10, 2012

MADISON, Wisconsin -- More than once, left-leaning music critics have pronounced the demise of the Seeger-esque, Almanacs labor-themed song. Along with Pete goes the whole genre of political folk revival, including, for the most disparaging, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. A veritable mess of clichés, our critic snaps. This music, especially the lyrics, neither clever nor funny nor inspiring.

The appearance of Harry Belafonte and Pete Seeger himself at the Obama inauguration might have prompted some doubts in this judgment. The Seeger Sessions recorded by Bruce Springsteen in 2009 might have ratcheted up those doubts.

What happened in the Wisconsin Uprising of 2011-2012 provides an even more persuasive counter example. The Solidarity Sing Along, which began on March 11, 2011, with a small group of singers and a one-page song sheet, revived the protest song and made it a major component of the political movement.

The Solidarity singers responded in full voice to Governor Scott Walker’s curtailment of the collective bargaining rights of state workers. In shaping their protest, they mixed familiar civil rights anthems such as “We Shall Overcome” with the sacred songs of the union movement. Every weekday, they engage a shifting population of singers in songs touting the rights of working people, the meaning of class struggle, and, asserting, in words of Billy Bragg, “There Is Power in the Union.”

Solidarity singers continue to gather at the Capitol in numbers ranging from 20-30 to more than 200. Barring officially scheduled events, they circle the Rotunda floor, with their conductor strategically placed before the bust of Robert M. La Follette, the state’s most beloved opposition politician.

Solidarity Sing Along group outside Wisconsin State Capitol. Photo by Rebecca Kemble / The Progressive.
On other days they brave the cold winds, rain, and snow of the Wisconsin winter and, in recent weeks, revel in the unusually warm temperatures. For the outdoor gatherings (Walker banned all instruments from the Capitol), musicians bring an assortment of instruments -- violins, guitars, mandolins, sousaphones, and squeeze boxes -- and play together as “The Learning Curve” pick-up band.

The selection of songs varies from day to day, but every sing-along concludes with the group’s theme song, “Solidarity Forever.” A timely favorite is “Roll Out the Roll Call,” with new lyrics by Sheboyganites Frank and Mary Koczan. “Recall Scott Walker…/Give him a kick in the rear!/ Recall Scott Walker…./Toss him right out on his ear!” If the chorus of Ralph Chaplin’s labor classic routinely produces raised fists, the updated “Beer Barrel Polka” invariably stirs a few in the crowd to polka, German-style. This is Wisconsin, after all.

The driving force through all these performances has been R. Chris Reeder. Although he worked as an actor and stage technician before moving to Madison with his wife, Lisa Penning, Reeder had never directed anything musical before taking on the Solidarity Sing Along. But he is tall and limber and comfortable with occupying center-stage. His voice is distinctive and deep and carries high above the rumbling of a crowd. He says he lacks prior political experience, but was simply eager to jump at the opportunity to oppose Walker’s draconian anti-union legislation.

In a recent interview, Reeder described the sing-along as a source of empowerment for the singers as much as a political statement aimed at the public. It turns out to be both: tourists to Madison regularly drop in the Capitol either to watch from a distance or to join in the singing.

Invitations to conduct sing-alongs are now coming from distant parts of Wisconsin. Recently a small group made the six-hour drive to Ashland to lead a sing-along far “up north.” The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, a coalition of activist groups founded in 1991, posts songbooks on its website and encourages communities throughout the state to start their own Solidarity Sing Alongs.

Reeder, who was born and raised near Seattle, is at home in Wisconsin. He finds his way to the Capitol between making deliveries to grocery stores for a local artisan bakery. He also receives a small stipend from the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, and picks up a few extra dollars from the sale of Solidarity Sing Along t-shirts and sweatshirts emblazoned with the motto “This Is What Democracy Sounds Like.”

So intimate is Reeder with the several dozen regulars and hundreds of admirers that the details of the recent birth of his first-born, August, reached his many fans on the Solidarity Sing Along Facebook page and generated thousands of “likes.”

Heroes, even those possessing great charm, are created by the times, according to the old saw. When Walker tried to force the sing-along out of the Capitol, the singers stood their ground. At every performance, Reeder read the relevant passage in the state Constitution: “The right of the people peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged.”

On March 17, 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin presented Reeder, on behalf of the Solidarity Sing Along, a much deserved award, the William Gorham Rice Civil Libertarian of the Year Award “for the expression of the First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom of assembly.” Even more recently, Leadership Wisconsin, a group that promotes the development of leaders to strengthen communities, tagged Reeder for yet futher recognition.

Dubbed the “longest continuously running singing protest in history,” the Solidarity Sing Along is about to celebrate its “semiseptcentennial,” that is, its 350th performance on April 26th at the Majestic Theatre, Madison’s oldest theater, a former vaudeville house that opened in 1906. The event coincides with the release of a CD of its standard repertoire of songs, which were recorded in February at a local Unitarian Universalist church. (Authors’ disclaimer: we were there for the major session, but sang softly far from the microphone, befitting limited talents.).

The lyrics may not be deft prose, but topicality and regionalism have their place. Woody Guthrie’s iconic ballad now goes: “From Lake Geneva to Madeleine Island/ From the rolling prairies,/ to our lovely dairies,/ Wisconsin was made for you and me!”

Lead violinist Daithi Wolfe seasonally updated the lyrics of a St. Patrick’s Day favorite: “Scotty Boy, Scotty Boy We Loathe You So…”

Several songs have inspired hand and body gestures. The chorus of “Bring Back Wisconsin to Me,” with new lyrics by Madison folk favorites Lou and Peter Berryman, involves “swaying the Wisconsin Way,” first left, then right. “Roll the Union On” prompts the “rolling” of arm over arm. The ever-popular “Scotty, We’re Coming for You!” (written by the local Indie-Irish-Rock band, The Kissers) ends energetically with index fingers pointed at the Capitol.

It should also be added that the Solidarity Sing Along is nothing but a joyous occasion. We wonder: When in the history of labor choruses did the singer-amateurs have more fun? It’s sheer pleasure to sing the rousing lyrics adapted from Florence Reece’s beloved “Which Side Are You On?”: “Don’t believe the Governor/ don’t listen to his lies/ Working folks don’t have a chance,/ unless we organize!”

[Mary Jo and Paul Buhle are the editors of It Started in Wisconsin: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Labor Protest (Verso Books). This article was first published at The Progressive. Read more articles by Mari Jo and Paul Buhle on The Rag Blog.]

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William Rogers : Austin Workers Rally to Recall Scott Walker

At the Recall Walker rally in Austin: Travis Donoho, left, organizer for Education Austin (American Federation of Teachers) and Steve Rossignol, Texas State Association of Electrical Workers. Photo by Carlos Lowry / The Rag Blog.
As Scott Walker speaks in Austin:
Unions rally to support recall
efforts of Wisconsin workers

By William Rogers / The Rag Blog / January 16, 2012

See more photos, Below.

AUSTIN -- They carried “Recall Walker” signs, but they weren’t in Wisconsin. They were standing across the street from the Hilton Hotel in downtown Austin, Texas, where Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had come to address a gathering of conservative Texas lawmakers hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation on Thursday, January 12.

They were numerous -- as many as 150 -- and they were loud. They chanted “Recall Walker” and “Do you like the unions? YES! Do you like Scott Walker? NO!”

“We’re here today,” said Becky Moeller, Texas AFL-CIO president. “To support our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin in their effort to recall Gov. Walker.”

Moeller went on to say that what happened last year in Wisconsin when Gov. Walker led the charge to roll back collective bargaining rights for public sector workers is happening all across the US. Right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers and the organizations that they support like the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are working in unison with politicians like Gov. Walker to take back gains won by unions that have made possible a decent middle-class life for millions of workers in both the public and private sector.

It happened in Ohio where last year lawmakers passed at the governor’s request a law restricting collective bargaining for public workers. (The law was subsequently overturned in November by a popular vote in a referendum.) It’s happening now in Indiana where the governor and lawmakers are trying to make Indiana a right-to-work-for-less state.

They’re inside planning how to make it happen in Texas next year when the Legislature meets. That’s why, today, We are Wisconsin, Moeller said.

The reality is that for the last 30 years, the rich have been waging class war on working people, said Snehal Shengavi, a member of the Texas State Employees Union CWA Local 6186 and the labor magnet for Occupy Austin. They have eroded our standard of living, frozen and cut our wages, taken away our jobs, cut our health care benefits, and made our retirement less secure.

“The rich have gotten richer while the rest of us suffer,” Shengavi said. “It’s time to put them on notice that we know what class warfare is, and we’re going to take it to them. We’re putting class warfare on the agenda, and it’s going to be on our own terms. Occupy everything!”

While demonstrators on the outside expressed their ire, TPPF welcomed Texas lawmakers and Gov. Walker to a luncheon at its annual forum where they discussed TPPF’s legislative agenda for the session that begins next year. Foremost on the agenda is a proposal to eliminate public pensions in Texas.

Last summer a group of Houston millionaires led by hedge fund operator Bill King announced that they were kicking off a campaign to eliminate public pensions for Texas’ teachers, public safety employees, and other local and state government workers.

In October, TPPF announced a plan for implementing King’s proposal. The plan would require legislative action, but if it passed, newly hired public employees would be diverted away from the state’s two public pension funds the Employee Retirement System for state employees and the Teacher Retirement System for teachers and into 401(k) type savings plans.

Local government new hires would also be diverted from their traditional pension plans. People already working in the public sector would have their pensions frozen. With the severe cut in state contributions envisioned in this plan, it would be difficult to maintain benefits for retirees at their current levels.

In the past, TPPF has supported legislation to privatize public services and give tax breaks to corporations. It also supports maintaining Texas’ right-to-work for less laws.

A long list of unions were represented at the demonstration: American Postal Workers Union, National Letter Carriers Union, AFSCME, Teamsters, Texas State Employees Union, Machinist, IBEW, CWA, Stagehands (IATSE), Transport Communications Union, Texas Federation of Teachers, Education Austin, Texas State Teachers Association, Screen Actors Guild, Steelworkers, and IWW all had members there. Members of Occupy Austin were also on hand.

As demonstrators chanted “We are the 99 percent,” a group of construction workers wearing their hardhats walked across the park next to the sidewalk where demonstrators gathered, stopped at the back edge of the demonstration, unfurled their banner that read Iron Workers Local 462, and began chanting.

[William Rogers is a member of the Texas State Employees Union/CWA Local 6186. He blogs at Left Labor Reporter where this article also appears.]

Above, The Rag Blog's Alice Embree, Texas State Employees Union, with Steve Rossignol of the electrical workers. Photos by Carlos Lowry / The Rag Blog.
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Paul Beckett : A Perfect Day in Madison

A few of the 100,000 that hit the streets of Madison, Wisc., Saturday, March 12, 2011. Photo by Paul Beckett / The Rag Blog.
Just ask 100,000 people!
A Perfect Day in Madison, Wisconsin

By Paul Beckett / The Rag Blog / March 13, 2011

[This is the third of Paul Beckett's reports from Madison for The Rag Blog.]

MADISON, Wisconsin -- Saturday, March 12, 2011. The wind off the frozen lakes was often 20 miles an hour (or more) and from the north. Windchills were in the 20s. It was mainly cloudy. Here and there, old snow and ice remained, and where there was no ice, the Wisconsin Capitol grounds had been trampled into a slippery, muddy morass. And it was beautiful!

Absolutely unprecedented crowds gathered for a whole day of protest events. Police estimates were 100,000 (but exact estimates are impossible). The crowd filled the Capitol square streets, sidewalks and what once were lawns, and then flowed down State Street and Wisconsin Avenue.

This time, a powerful sound system was in place and you could hear the speeches from far out in the crowd. In fact, you could hear them twice as the sound reflected off the taller buildings.

The breadth of social groups protesting Governor Scott Walker’s “union-busting” and public service-cutting Budget Repair Bill was truly awesome. The private sector unions were there (often with major leadership figures). The public service unions (AFSCME and the teachers unions) were there. The firemen, policemen and prison staff were there. Teachers and workers had come from Michigan, where things are also bad.

Farmers staged a tractor parade during the massive Madison protest. Photo by Paul Beckett / The Rag Blog.
Farmers came in, protesting the planned cutbacks in the Medicaid-based programs on which so many of them depend. Late in the morning a tractor parade pushed through the already-dense crowds, festooned with anti-Walker signs (many of them referring to the animal waste that is so familiar to farmers).

But the dominant impression one got was just of PEOPLE: all kinds of people, from all over Wisconsin, unaffiliated, unorganized. Just people. A feeling of complete like-mindedness and shared values and interests linked 100,000 people together.

Thank you, Scott Walker.

By 3 p.m., when the main program began, no one could move. The 14 Democratic senators who had decamped to Illinois to thwart passage of Walker’s bill were welcomed back. Each gave a speech to tumultuous applause and chants of “Thank you! Thank you!” They had not, in fact, stopped the bill. But they had provided almost three weeks for understanding -- and protest -- to develop

Photo by Paul Beckett / The Rag Blog.
Also, the holdout of the “Fab 14” ultimately forced the Walker camp to “pass” their bill in an abrupt night-time procedure that was full of parliamentary improprieties, and perhaps downright illegal.

The speakers (besides the 14, they included Jesse Jackson, Tony Shalhoub, and Susan Sarandon) noted that now the battle continues, but the battlefield changes.

Suits are already being brought to challenge the legality of the law in the courts.

More important in the longer run are the recall campaigns . While “Recall Walker” was a constant theme in signs and chants, under Wisconsin law that effort can not begin until next year. But petitions against eight Republican Senators have been filed, with May 2 deadlines for completion. There was an enormous sense of energy for these yesterday.

Meanwhile, a Utah-based anti-immigration group has already invaded Wisconsin (it is perfectly legal, it seems) to organize recalls against members of the Democratic “Fab 14” who got so much thanks and appreciation yesterday.

Control of the Wisconsin Senate will be determined during the coming summer by the outcome of these efforts.

Those who participated Saturday went home elated and politically energized in a way that few of us have been for some time. But all understood, as well, that Saturday did not mark the end of a battle, but its beginning. It will be a long battle for the future of Wisconsin, and no one can be sure of the outcome. And Wisconsin, in turn, clearly is just one battleground in the broader struggle for the country’s future.

[Dr. Paul Beckett lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He can be reached at beckettpa@gmail.com.]

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Paul Beckett : The Wisconsin Revolution and Gov. Walker's 'Putsch'

Photo by Paul Beckett / The Rag Blog.
Dispatch from Madison:
Governor Walker’s putsch

By Paul Beckett / The Rag Blog / March 11, 2011

[This is the second of Paul Beckett's reports from Madison for The Rag Blog.]

MADISON, Wisconson -- In less than 24 hours, in a series of shocking and unprecedented developments, public sector union and collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin have been eviscerated by a Republican legislative majority controlled by Governor Scott Walker.

What seemed to Democratic legislative members and to neutral observers (but there are few of those in Wisconsin now) a putsch, began about 6 p.m. on the evening of Wednesday, March 9. As coups go, this one clearly was carefully -- even brilliantly -- prepared. The surprise was absolute.

Governor Walker spoke to a news conference on Monday, March 7. He referred to meetings at the Illinois border his staff had had with some of the 14 Democratic state senators who had left Wisconsin on February 17 in order to prevent passage of the “union busting” legislation, SB11. (See my article, “Madison and the Revolution at Home," on The Rag Blog, March 8, 2010.)

A compromise was brewing, Walker implied. “The problem,” Walker said, “is Senator [Mark] Miller.” (Miller is the titular leader of the Senate Democrats.) Maybe it is time, Walker went on, for the Democratic caucus to elect a new leader.

All eyes turned to the Group of 14 Democratic senators: were they divided? Would one or more accept some form of compromise and enable the Republicans to complete their passage of SB11? (The presence of only ONE Democratic senator in the chamber would legitimate the vote passing SB11.] (Read the full text of SB11 here.)

Meanwhile, unperceived, Republicans prepared a trap that would snap shut on Wednesday. The complicated, 144-page “Budget Repair Bill” (SB11) was being taken apart by staff and reformulated, ostensibly to strip out everything BUT the collective bargaining provisions.

The result was labeled a conference amendment to SB11, and was only six pages shorter than the original. But the point was that this new version could be labeled as non-fiscal and would not carry the quorum requirement of the original.

A bizarre reversal of positions was now apparent. Incorporation of the collective bargaining provisions within the Budget Repair Bill, very definitely a “fiscal” measure, had been stoutly justified by Governor Walker on the grounds that they were inseparable from the fiscal repair provisions. (Opponents had argued that the provisions had nothing to do with fiscal “repair” and should be taken out of the Budget Repair Bill and debated separately.)

Now, the Republican position was the opposite. The new version was NOT fiscal. With the quorum requirement changed, whether the Group of 14 were in the Chamber or in Illinois was immaterial. The bill could be passed with Republican votes alone.

The ambush worked perfectly. Democrats and protesters remained focused on the hold-out by the 14 Senators and on the possibility of compromise. Word of Walker’s plan leaked out only at the last minute, late on Wednesday afternoon. Beginning about 5:30 p.m. a cluster of emails, most of them billed “emergency,” appeared in my email inbox. The following, from the Dane County Democrats, is typical:

Breaking Update: Tonight at 6:00 pm in the Senate Parlor we are hearing that Senate GOP is going to split the budget repair bill, fiscal from non-fiscal, and ram it through in the dark of night. Given that they're attempting to ram through the bill without any media attention we wanted to let you know that very important developments are likely to occur tonight at 6:00 pm in the Senate Parlor.

Please be at the capital by 6:00PM TONIGHT!

Actually, I did not receive any of the emails until the next day. I was having a quick dinner a block away from the Capitol at Ian’s Pizza (an enterprise that has become known internationally for its role in keeping the protesters in the Capitol Rotunda sustained). I was on the way to a 7 p.m. debate between Madison’s two mayoral candidates.

Suddenly people were shouting, “To the Capitol. They’re going to pass the bill! Tonight!” People in groups of two, four, six, were hurrying up State Street toward the Capitol. I followed. At the top of State Street was a volcano-shaped mountain of snow (some five inches had fallen the night before). On its peak a tall young man stood shouting in an amazing voice: “Everyone to the Capitol! Everyone to the Capitol!” He waved us onward.

The word spread amazingly. By 6 p.m. hundreds were there; very soon thousands. It was dark. Everyone wanted to enter the Capitol. A long line formed at the only entrance that was (in a limited way) open. The line moved glacially. Inside, on the other side of the revolving door, protesters were packed, waiting, apparently, to be taken one-by-one through the security wanding procedure. Noise was deafening: “Whose house? Our house!”

Soon, however, any pretense of an open Capitol was abandoned; the police closed the doors absolutely, leaving some inside and thousands outside. People were angry.

Photo by Paul Beckett / The Rag Blog.
In the meantime, inside the Senate chamber, the deed was already done. In less than half an hour, a “conference committee” had reported out the revised bill. The committee Chair gaveled the meeting closed as the Democratic minority leader, Peter Barca, was shouting out the many ways in which the meeting was improper under the rules of the Legislature or illegal under state law.

The bill was then instantaneously passed (or “passed”) by the Senate Republicans.

By about 6:25 p.m. it was all done. The session was immediately adjourned, and the Republican Members were reportedly smuggled out of the Capitol building and beyond the crowds through a tunnel. (Their escape and removal by a special Madison Metro bus was not as secret as they would have liked.)

The word spread among the protesters and, more than any other time in the three weeks of protest, the mood was one of deep anger and frustration. Later in the evening some of the inside protesters opened an unguarded outside door. Crowds outside pushed in, brushing aside the police, who had raced to stop them. Thousands ended up inside, chanting, commiserating, venting. Most left by 2 or 3 a.m.

The expectation was that the building would open at 8 a.m. Thursday morning and that the Assembly would begin passage of the “conference amendment” by 9 a.m. In fact, the building did not reopen in the morning. The Department of Administration announced that an “assessment of building security requirements” was in progress. By 11 a trickle of protesters was permitted in as the Assembly slowly began to organize itself for the crucial session to pass the Senate version.

The session, billed a “Special Session” to allow more flexibility with rules and the traditions of the “Body” as it is always called, was brought to order at 12:34 p.m. Incongruously (considering he had been refused entry to the Capitol an hour or so earlier), the Reverend Jesse Jackson was allowed to deliver an opening prayer. He took no sides on the issues, and insisted that the legislators join hands (literally) across the aisle. They did, and then a bitter partisan verbal battle began.

A little over three hours of speeches were allowed. Most of these were from Democratic representatives clad in the bright orange T shirts proclaiming workers’ rights that they had adopted three weeks before. The session was broadcast by WisconsinEye and is available for viewing here.

The Democrats argued the illegality of procedures. They asserted that the bill before the Assembly was not the same one that had been before the Senate, and that senators (they were all Republican) had not been informed, had not been given copies of the new legislation, and could not have understood what they were voting for. They cited the shame brought on “this Body,” and on Wisconsin by all that had been done over the recent days and weeks.

More than that, they condemned the loss of workers’ rights and human rights, and the great harm that would be done to Wisconsin families and communities by the bill. Representative Tamara Grigsby, Democrat from the 18th District, delivered a particularly powerful and moving speech. (Had this reporter been a member of the Republican caucus he would have instantly moved across the aisle, sobbing with shame.)

To no avail. At 3:40 in the afternoon, abruptly, with some 20 representatives still to speak, the chair called for the vote (it is electronic and almost instantaneous), announced that the bill was passed, and adjourned the meeting.

The Republicans once again dematerialized mysteriously from the Capitol building.

It was over. Or, perhaps, just begun. The Democratic Party and labor unions are filing complaints and suits challenging the legality of the bill’s passage. The Governor’s use of the State Patrol (now under the direction of the father of Scott Fitzgerald, leader of the Senate Republicans, and his brother Jeff Fitzgerald, leader of the Assembly Republicans) to enforce the Capitol closures is being challenged.

But it has been understood from the beginning that this is less a legislative battle than a long-term political one that will touch every community and involve every important issue. It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of Wisconsin is at stake. And as Michael Moore has been saying so eloquently, the implications for the nation are huge.

Already planned for Saturday, March 12, is a major protest, bringing together farmers (who will mount a “tractorcade” around the Capitol square), labor, educators, students, liberal-progressives from all over the state, and many members of smaller communities that are becoming aware of the hit their schools and local governments are about to take from the Walker budget. Major speakers are invited, and it is reported that the 14 Democratic Senators will return to thank the public for their support.

Recall campaigns are planned on both sides. Under Wisconsin’s recall law almost a year must go by before a campaign to recall Scott Walker can begin. The same is true of Assembly members. So effectively, only senators are presently subject to recall. A bevy of progressive organizations are organizing campaigns directed against at least four of the Republican senators and, so far, there seems to be enormous energy behind these. Success would shift the Senate back to Democratic hands. The Republican recall campaigns, if they are pursued, would be directed against members of the “Group of 14” representing swing districts.

The political fallout of this tempestuous three weeks events will soon begin to be known. It is interesting, already, that one Republican senator and four Republican representatives voted against the “conference amendment.” And there is speculation that one reason that Scott Walker opted for this radical and legally risky legislative maneuver was that he sensed weakening on the part of other of the Republican senators.

[Dr. Paul Beckett lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He can be reached at beckettpa@gmail.com.]

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Think Progress : The Koch Brothers' War on Mainstreet

Charles and David: The brothers Koch. Image from AlterNet.
The Kochs vs. Mainstreet:
The right-wing billionaires'
open war on everyday Americans

By Think Progress / AlterNet / March 2, 2011

Koch Industries, the private company of the billionaire Koch brothers Charles and David, is an oil and gas, chemicals, cattle, forestry, and synthetics giant -- and also a major force for punishing Main Street Americans. Charles and David Koch (pronounced "coke") have directed many millions of their shared $43 billion net worth into a vast propaganda machine that's corrupting American politics in order to reward their pollution-based enterprise.

The Koch brothers have played an integral role in provoking Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker's notorious attempt to crush Wisconsin's public sector unions. Koch Industries contributed $43,000 to Walker's gubernatorial campaign, and Koch political operatives encouraged the newly elected governor to take on the unions. Koch Industries is a major player in Wisconsin: Koch owns a coal company subsidiary with facilities in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland, and Sheboygan; six timber plants throughout the state; and a large network of pipelines.

Since the showdown began two weeks ago, Koch-funded front groups like Americans for Prosperity (AFP) -- which is chaired by David Koch -- and the American Legislative Exchange Council have organized counter-protests, prepped GOP lawmakers with anti-labor legislative talking points, and even announced an anti-union advertising campaign. For now, however, the AFP message doesn't appear to be resonating: Koch-backed pro-Walker demonstrations have had low attendance and were dwarfed by pro-union supporters in Madison this week.


Knee-capping unions

In a speech earlier this month at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Americans For Prosperity-Michigan Executive Director Scott Hagerstrom revealed the true goal of his group and allies like Walker.

Speaking at CPAC's "Panel for Labor Policy," Hagerstrom said that even more than cutting taxes and regulations, AFP really wants to "take the unions out at the knees ." Knee-capping free labor has long been a goal of the Koch brothers and their many front groups. In the run-up to the 2010 elections, the Kochs worked with other anti-labor billionaires, corporations, and activists to fund conservative candidates and groups across the country.

Now after viciously opposing pro-middle class policies for years, Koch Industries is trying to eliminate the only organizations which serve as a counterweight to its well-oiled corporate machine. Believing he was talking with David Koch, Walker told a prankste about his plans to crush the unions. Koch's AFP operatives are now working with "state officials in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to urge them to duplicate Walker's crusade in Wisconsin."


Pushing poison

According to EPA databases, Koch businesses are huge polluters, emitting thousands of pounds of toxic pollutants. As soon as he got into office, Walker started cutting environmental regulations and appointed a Republican known for her disregard for environmental regulations to lead the Department of Natural Resources. In addition, Walker has stated his opposition to clean energy jobs policies that might draw workers away from Koch-owned interests.

The Koch political poison has spread across the nation. Robocalls from Koch's Americans for Prosperity group flooded New Hampshire in support of a bill that would repeal participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which has cut greenhouse pollution and created 1,130 jobs as a result of energy efficiency benefits.

AFP climate deniers in New Jersey are trying to kill RGGI there as well. Koch's main man in Congress, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS), inserted an amendment to slash EPA funding in the House GOP's already wildly anti-environment budget. Koch's many subsidiaries have filed challenges against health and environmental rules from toxic chemical disclosure to dumping in streams.


Rich Fink defends Kochs

Even while local business leaders have called for Walker to end his assault on Wisconsin unions, Koch executives have said that they "will not step back at all" and have pointed to the importance of their "grassroots" group, saying, "it is good to have them on the ground, in the battle, trying to help out." Rich Fink, the executive vice president of Koch Industries who oversees their ideological campaigns, defended the billionaire brothers in an interview with the National Review Online by blaming "the Left."

With the Left trying to intimidate the Koch brothers to back off of their support for freedom and signaling to others that this is what happens if you oppose the administration and its allies, we have no choice but to continue to fight.

The Koch brothers, who have been increasing their personal wealth by billions even as they have fired thousands of workers, are really just victims of a vast left-wing conspiracy, Fink claims.

This is part of an orchestrated campaign that has been going on for many months. It involves the Obama administration, the Center for American Progress, aligned left-wing groups, and their friends in the media. This is just the latest salvo in their attacks on the Koch brothers and Koch Industries. But it is an escalation -- they're now bringing in some labor groups, which they have not done before.

Somehow, Rich Fink seems unaware that his own operatives have declared open war on American workers.

[This story was originally published by Think Progress and was distributed by AlterNet.]

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Joshua Brown : Life During Wartime: Puppet Master

Political cartoon by Joshua Brown / The Rag Blog / February 28, 2011.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

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Joshua Brown : Life During Wartime: Slay the Beast

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Political cartoon and verse by Joshua Brown / The Rag Blog / February 20, 2011.The Rag Blog

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