Wisconsin Matters

guardian.co.uk — Enter Governor Scott Walker. A month into office, he was keen to establish himself as the new sheriff in town by reprising in the state of Wisconsin a simulacrum of Ronald Reagan's presidency. Painting by numbers, Scott Walker, following Reagan's first stroke, took on labor. But Walker's Patco moment (the busting of the Air Traffic Controller's union) has proved an overreach. Walker, who presents himself in a way that could be right out of Frank Capra's central casting, may find that following Reagan's recipe produces different results today. After 30 years of economic decline, workers in the United States are recognizing the bankruptcy of these policies and are fighting back.

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huffingtonpost.com — What's happening in Wisconsin isn't about budget deficits or government spending or even public employee benefits. It's class war, wherein the big business, conservative Right tries to pit working class Americans against one another so that the super-rich can continue to pilfer our private and public coffers for their own boundless gain. Here are the facts you need to know — and spread.

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prospect.org — "The tide is turning, and people are turning against this bill to take away worker rights in Wisconsin," says a determined state Sen. Mark Miller, a Democrat from Wisconsin, his voice hoarse from a non-stop schedule of interviews with media from around the nation. "If the governor remains intransigent, there will be consequences," he vowed. Miller is one of 14 fugitive Democratic state senators who refuse to be present in the State Senate, denying the 17 Republicans Senators a chance to pass of the nation's most radical assault on public-employee rights ever witnessed. They remain solid in holding out, says Miller, and the movement to protect worker rights is growing and generating excitement. But if the Wisconsin public employees and their allies fail to out-last Walker and his allies, the results will be devastating for democracy.here, and across the nation.

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washingtonpost.com — As demonstrators in the tens of thousands flooded the Capitol in Madison, Wis., a sign captured the spirit: "I didn't think Cairo would be this cold." Even conservative Republican Rep. Paul Ryan saw the parallel: "It's like Cairo moved to Madison." Got that right. As the demonstrations for workers' rights head into their second week, Madison has become ground zero in the battle for democracy in this country. Don't fall for the dodge that this is about money, the pay and perks of public employees. This is about basic democratic rights, and the balance of power in America. This is a fight in which every U.S. worker has a direct stake.

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washingtonpost.com — Wisconsin is just the tip of the iceberg. The Republican war on unions goes far beyond Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to end collective-bargaining rights for public employees in his state or Gov. John Kasich's effort to do the same in Ohio. For a more comprehensive view of the Republicans' war on unions, we need to focus on what Republicans in Washington did last week. In the House, Republicans passed, as part of their continuing resolution to fund the federal government through September, a provision that slashed the funding of the National Labor Relations Board by one-third.

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