Each day, the crowds of protesters have grown outside the Wisconsin state capitol in Madison. Labor leaders, including AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka (ed. - a personal friend of Hackwhackers), are drawing a line in the sand on state, municipal and local employees' rights to bargain collectively. The reactionary teatard Rethug Gov. Scott "Too Much Johnnie" Walker is determined to portray this as a "budget battle" when in fact it's all about the teachers, state employees, etc. right to collective bargaining. After all, they form a key bulwark in the Dem's get-out-the-vote army each election, and unions are the one institutional body that comes anywhere close to countering the enormous influence of corporate money in election campaigns.
The coming battles in Ohio and Florida, and other states now run by right-wing Governors, will take their cues from Wisconsin, so it's vital that progressives establish a firewall to contain the social Darwinist, Rethug message of "you sacrifice, I don't have to."
