From Newsletter #3 Spring 2011

Social worker Paul J. Golueke describes the inspiring struggle of public sector workers in Wisconsin in the U.S who occupied the state parliament building in February 2011 to protest against an attack on their trade union rights

Recently people all over the United States and throughout the world, turned their focus to Wisconsin and our fight to defend ordinary working people; something the likes of which we have not seen for generations and will shape the future of our country.   To begin understanding what is happening, you need to look back at the early history of our state. Wisconsin was a leader in the early progressive movement in America, responsible for the eight hour work-day, workers compensation, and child labor laws to name a few.  We take great pride in our progressive history, and understand the fight it took to win these rights, and it’s not something we give up easily.

According to Wisconsin law when facing a budget crisis the Governor is allowed to introduce a budget repair bill.  A review by Wisconsin’s State Fiscal Bureau determined the state was not in need of austerity measures, and could even end the current year in surplus.  However right wing Governor Scott Walker and Republicans decided to ignore this and introduce their bill.  Coincidently after being in office for little over a month, the Governor added $147 million to the deficit by giving tax breaks to big businesses.

The budget repair bill proposed to take away collective bargaining rights of public employee unions, and have workers contribute more to pensions and health care. In one swift move Walker declared war on ordinary working people in Wisconsin.   Because of the recession people all over have had to tighten their belts, and Walker would like us to believe that workers in unions have not had to make sacrifices, and tried to make them public enemy number one; unfortunately for Walker the people of Wisconsin were not going to be fooled.

Another piece to the bill that has serious implications for social work was Walker’s attack on our state Medicaid system, which provides basic health coverage for over 775,000 children and adults in the state of Wisconsin.  This includes over 20,000 children and young adults (0-21) with developmental and physical disabilities and 90,000 seniors on Senior Care, a medication drug benefit program.  The budget repair bill would give the Department of Health and Human Services the power to make changes to the Medicaid system in the state and limit healthcare access.

Republicans attempted to quickly pass the bill, but fourteen Senate Democrats left the state to prevent a quorum and blocked a vote of the bill from taking place.  This opened up the protest movement and occupation of the State Capitol building.  Over the next weeks crowds of over 70,000 people packed the streets to make their voices heard.  As people spent nights inside the capitol, protest signs were taped to the walls; huge banners with sayings such as ‘Tax the Rich’ were draped from railings overlooking the rotunda, and there was chanting of “This is what democracy looks like!”  Protesters had begun to form their own functioning community with people offering food (calls from around the world came into Madison pizza restaurants ordering and sending pizza to the protestors), and areas were designated for childcare.  Numerous people were knitting for a ‘stitch-in’ and even one area on the second level was designated as the Zen area where people were meditating (truly a nice place to escape to when you needed some respite from the chanting).

I only spent three nights inside the capitol, but that was enough to change my life completely.  The effect those nights, and this movement had on me also happened to countless others: I found my voice.  As a social worker, I was educated to be the voice and advocate of my clients, and I always thought I was doing a good job at it.  As a result of these protests I learned I was barely even scraping the surface of what I could do.  Not only that, but I was inspired as I watched others take a stand for the first time in their life and speak out.

Republicans in the Senate were eventually able to vote to take away collective bargaining rights by admitting that had nothing to do with the budget.  This way, a quorum was not needed for a vote.  Once and for all this showed what the motivation behind the bill was.  Analysts will tell you that unions typically support Democrats, and if unions are broken-up, financially Democrats lose their largest investors. However the state motto in Wisconsin is ‘Forward’ and that is the direction we will continue to move by continuing the campaign.

I can’t help but think how I’m finishing this reflection on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination, and formulate what this protest means to me.  This is the movement of people who are sick and tired of corrupt politics trying to tear our country apart.  This is a movement about people peacefully working together to solve their problems.  Through this process countless Wisconsin citizens are finding their voice for the first time, and they just want them to be heard.  The fourteen Senators who prevented a quorum allowed us to have our voices; to us that makes them heroes of democracy.  We are having an extremely important conversation right now about what our democratic rights are; it is a very serious debate, and needs to be talked about.  Our Governor does not want to allow that conversation to happen because he knows that as people learn about what he is doing for his corporate influences, it is not in the best interest of this great state or the country we are a part of.   So when you read about this in the media understand this is not a ‘riot of slobs’; this is a group of people that have come together to try and affect change with peace.  Right is on our side and we cannot be beaten, we will continue to move ‘Forward’.