Bargaining Versus Begging

Last Sunday afternoon, I took the train to nearby Nyon to attend a meeting with a group of expatriate Americans who are greatly concerned, among other things, about the radical right-wing's well-funded and concerted onslaughts on public employees in various states in the United States.

If you live in the United States and have not heard much about these occurrences, you are not alone.  What passes for mainstream media in the US has largely been deafeningly silent about them.  For the most part, good factual coverage of the Wisconsin demonstrations in support of bargaining and other human rights, as well as similar events around the nation, can be found on-line on sites such as Daily Kos and The Huffington Post.  Some regular columnists at mainstream print media sources such as the New York Times and the Washington Post have also published excellent opinion pieces. 

Among events that have received a tiny bit of exposure in the US press - the news has been covered much better abroad by the Guardian and the Independent than by US newspapers generally, I'm sorry to note - have been the ongoing demonstrations, at times numbering well over 100,000 participants, in the state of Wisconsin throughout the month of February.  What is fascinating is that these events have attracted a worldwide audience and a feeling of global solidarity that surely were not intended by the radical righties!

Because anti-union (public employees' unions are the current targets) and anti-collective bargaining actions have been taken by legislators and governors in thrall to radical ideologues who were voted into office in November 2010 and these disturbing actions have seemed to be so well organized, William Kronon, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, prepared an interesting and well-researched historical context for these actions and published them here.  For performing this true public service, the Republican Party of Wisconsin has literally launched a modern-day witch hunt against Professor Kronon.  The historical context must have hit too close to home, methinks.

Some in our expatriate group have connections to UNI (Union Network International), the global union for skills and services that represents 900 trade unions and 20 million workers worldwide, including those in the United States.  UNI is headquartered in Nyon and occupies a modern building there with well-appointed conference rooms.

The meeting had many - of all ages - in attendance.  Discussion was lively and it was a very interesting afternoon.  The gentleman seated in front of me proudly sported a sweatshirt with the logo, "United We Bargain, Divided We Beg."  These are sobering sentiments indeed.  More sobering is the fact that we Americans should have to be standing firm for such  - again - and in the 21st century! 

Among other actions, to show our own solidarity with and support of Wisconsin's public sector employees, we approved a resolution that denounces the unprecedented attacks against public sector workers.   The text of the resolution, entitled "We Are All Wisconsin," can be found here.  On 4 April, we, together with other like-minded Americans and supporters, will rally at the Place des Nations in Geneva in support of collective bargaining rights.

The 4th April timing is significant, as it represents the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had traveled to stand in solidarity with striking sanitation workers demanding their chance to attain the American Dream.  We keep having to fight the same battles - over and over again.  As the saying goes, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."