Wisconsin's painfully moderate labor uprising.

• Author: Morris, Anne Jane
• Position: Thinking Economically

Time for a New Unionism?

"What one can say with confidence is that ... AFL-C10 business unionism does not meet the needs of working people at the end of the twentieth century. A qualitatively different unionism is needed." --Staughton Lynd, 1996 (1)

Madison, Wisconsin, September 2011. The world-famous Wisconsin Spring, sparked by a Republican attack on collective bargaining rights, took place two blocks from my apartment. Demonstrators were as taken aback as were Republicans at the unprecedented outpouring. For weeks it teetered on the edge of no one knew what, then collapsed into a "painfully moderate" denouement. (2) But despite the fact that we were still "yelling at buildings" most of the time, for weeks it had an edgy do-it-yourself quality all too often missing at demos. For quite a while, no one was in charge, or, rather, everyone was in charge an echo of the "We are all leaders" refrain of 1930s solidarity unionism and the Wobblies. (3)

Perhaps the biggest lesson is how quickly the movement--what I call the Outpouring was defanged. If such a spontaneous, unpredictable, roiling foment as we had here in Wisconsin does not lead to big changes for working people, and beyond--what would it take?

Repercussions and adjustments continue. The ball of yarn has not yet completely unraveled, but the paths not taken loom large. Labor will do better "next time" if it is as prepared as the Republicans were (bold program and strategy in hand) for this time.

Read all about it--the spring of our discontent

It was only after February's crowds carrying "FitzWalkerStan" signs (4) around the frigid Madison Capitol Square gave way to "Walkerville," a sweltering tent city named after the governor, that the first two headstones of the Republicans' Wisconsin agenda were erected. In June 2011, both the anticollective bargaining bill and the budget bill (chock full of wishlist fantasies (5) saved up by two generations of Republicans) became law. (6)

About a week after an alleged altercation in the judicial chambers between two Wisconsin Supreme Court justices, Governor Scott Walker signed the budget bill into law. It is a measure of how enraged and divided the state is that he didn't do it in Madison because he would have had to face thousands of protesters. Instead, he planned to exclude the public by having a "private" bill signing at a sheet metal factory two hours' drive from the state capital. That venue had to be changed when news media learned that the owner was a convicted tax cheat, so Walker signed the bill at another metal works, with hundreds of protesters outside. (7) Walker's continued "private" bill signing is an apt metaphor for the current state of politics in this state.

The anti-collective bargaining bill that was originally part of the "budget repair bill" became law in the wake of a flurry of court cases and an election widely regarded as stolen.

Passed by means of an illegal stealth maneuver in March, voided by a lower court on open meetings law grounds in May, (8) it was reinstated in June by the state's highest court. Between the illegal passing of it and the court action, Wisconsin had an April election to choose a Supreme Court justice that everyone assumed would be the deciding vote on the collective bargaining (open meetings) case, and thus the fate of collective bargaining in Wisconsin.

Because the Supreme Court race was regarded as a proxy for the statewide Walker/collective bargaining/budget struggle, signs supporting challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg were ubiquitous at Capitol demonstrations. In a race reminiscent of the 2000 Bush-Gore fiasco, Walker partisan David Prosser (a former Republican leader in the state legislature) was reelected sort of to the Supreme Court.

Two days after the April 5 election in which Kloppenburg had evidently defeated the incumbent Prosser by a tiny margin, news broke that Republicans had "found" 14,000 more votes. Only after a 5-week statewide recount process did Democrat/Progressive Kloppenburg concede defeat, unable to prove that the margin of victory--7000 votes (of 1.5 million cast) "lost" for two days on a former employee of the governor's personal computer--were fraudulent. It seems no one witnessed what happened to the numerous open and unsecured bags of ballots observed during the closely watched recount. The court retained its 4-3 split in favor of Republicans/conservatives.

Meanwhile, the "Fabulous 14" Democratic senators who famously snuck away to Illinois to forestall a quorum went back to their offices. Attempts by three unions and the former (Democratic) state attorney general, Peg Lautenschlager, to get a restraining order to stop the governor from instituting airport--like security at the State Capitol like much else in this state--was long mired in a legal morass.

In summer 2011, Wisconsin held nine recall elections (of six Republicans who supported and three Democrats who opposed the Walker/Tea Party/anti-worker agenda). Almost everybody sued everybody else for fraudu-lent petitions, procedures, and the like. To delay the recall vote, Republicans lined up "fake" Democrats to run in primaries. They all lost, but Republicans gained another month to run attack ads. Democrats, who had to win 3 of 6 recalls of Republican senators in order to gain the majority in the state senate, won only 2. Though all three Democratic senators the Republicans tried to recall survived, Republicans thus retained control of both houses and, so far, the governorship. State law permits recall elections only for those who have been in office for a year, so Governor Scott Walker's recall comeuppance could not begin until January 2012.

Before getting to what might have, and still could, happen, a glimpse of how unsettled and unsettling the Outpouring was.

Solidarity is busting out all over

The first thing to say is that people carrying signs were in the Capitol and on the square all day long, every day, for a month. Supporters streamed in from around the state and the country. Unions making appearances included nurses' unions, numerous public employee, law enforcement, and teachers' unions, Correction Officers, CWA, Teamsters, ATU, Sheet Metal Workers, Painters & Allied Trades, Steamfitters, Boilermakers, State Engineers, Bricklayers, Carpenters, IBEW, Steelworkers, AFSCME, Pipefitters, SEIU, Stage Hands, and a group of seven smartly dressed airline pilots looking ready for takeoff The union and labor core was joined by a (proportionately tiny) auxiliary of Wobblies (IWW), environmental, LGBT, peace, and social justice groups.

Signs proclaimed, "Solidarity from Michigan/LA/Perm.," "Pittsburgh Supports Wisconsin" and "Minnesota Labor Supports Wisconsin." A retired "Steelworker's Daughter for Collective Bargaining" played "Solidarity Forever" on a recorder. The turbulent sea of signs included "Hosni Walker," "Egypt supports Wisconsin Workers," "Honduras Stands with Wisconsin," "Realtors for Collective Bargaining," and "Non-Union Household for Unions."

Governor Walker had claimed that eliminating most public workers' collective bargaining rights would give state and local governments the "tools" to balance their budgets and cut costs. A local talk show host (9) took to calling him "Governor Tool," a moniker that caught on. For months, the host devoted his call-in show to advancing the cause of the demonstrators, interviewing labor leaders, reporting onsite events, and educating and encouraging all Wisconsinites to support the cause.

Toddlers wearing "Union Thug" shirts perched on their parents' shoulders. The parade of signs on the...