At noon today, February 26, 2011, in all 50 states of the United States, local protests will be held in support of the workers and unions in Wisconsin who have been protesting in Madison for 10 days.
Matters in Madison came to a head two nights ago as the Republican majority in the State Assembly ended debate on the bill to strip most public employees’ unions of their collective bargaining rights, the ability for the state to sell off power plants and other utilities with no bids and rewrite Medicaid policy to make it easier to attack President Obama’s Health Care initiative.
Republican lawmakers ended debate at approximately 1am, called a vote and closed voting after only a few seconds, not allowing even the Democrating legislators in the Assembly Chamber to cast their votes. The Republicans then left the Chamber to cries of "Shame! Shame! Shame!" from Democrats and protesters. Whether they acted legally has yet to be determined.
Most major outlets are covering the union-busting aspects of this situation, but the other two areas are also important and flying under the radar. Republican policy-makers have long wanted to privatize utilities and their hatred of the safety-net of Medicaid is well documented.
Liberal and Progressive pundits and policy-makers have called for protest in support of the Wisconsin workers today at noon. Click here to find the location nearest you. (Link is to moveon.org.)