Tens of thousands of workers have stopped work and have virtually taken over the Wisconsin state Capitol to protest the government's attempt to destroy the public sector unions - part of an attack on trade union at national level - in a conflict that Some compare it to what happened in Egypt.
Scott Walker's new Republican governor and the legislative instrument controlled by his party to promote a legislative initiative cancel pensions, increasing costs of medical care and limit the right to negotiate the collective agreement only to wages, and other measures to weaken the unions public and their achievements over the decades. Walker said he is ready to use the National Guard if the unions refused to stop these initiatives.
Previously, from Tuesday to teachers, employees of public hospitals, nurses, maintenance workers, prison workers and the environment were concentrated in the center of Madison, the state capital, backed by trade unionists in the private sector who have joined in solidarity, for two days had surrounded the Capitol, and thousands had entered the building chanting slogans of the government, "close it" and "freedom, democracy and trade unions ".
For this reason, many observers have noted that the Wisconsin seems to Egypt, and protesters who were doing the same note. In some banners read: Hosni / Walker (in reference to the governor). Protest as the Egyptians. If Egypt can achieve democracy, why can not it Wisconsin? This is our square Tahrir.Ciò is happening in Wisconsin, said Noam Chomsky, perhaps the beginning of what we really need here: a democratic uprising , since democracy here has been almost eradicated, said in an interview program Democracy Now. What
pride stand in Madison, Wisconsin, this week, where the people have raised a rebellion against the Republican Neanderthals who seek to destroy the public sector unions and impose massive damages to workers. This is not to balance the budget. This is to destroy the unions as a political force and economic , wrote Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive National, based in Madison. And, 'he added, the zero area of \u200b\u200bthe fight against all this, and those of Wisconsin are making the closest thing to a general strike that I've ever seen in my life.
Unions overview of national resources and personnel to support their state sections. They recognize that if they can enact this law in Wisconsin, it will be replicated in other states where the rulers are trying to reduce their budget deficits - which have multiplied as a result of the economic crisis - by downloading costs on public sector workers. Similar initiatives are being promoted in Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, as well as versions less drastic but still impose severe budget cuts to public sector unions - especially teachers - in states ruled by democratic giant, as in the case of New York and California. This was
the size of the demonstrations that some Republican state lawmakers already are rethinking their support for the governor's , while Senate Democrats have slipped away leaving the state if the upper house without a quorum, which made it impossible to vote on the initiative that The governor would like to be approved soon. Others think that, despite the protests, however, the measure will pass.
Even the president Barack Obama has expressed his sympathy for workers at the Battle of Wisconsin . In an interview with a major radio said that the government's measures to obstruct the negotiations of the collective agreement "in seem more like a general assault on unions ... It is teachers, firefighters, social workers and police. They make many sacrifices and give a great contribution, and I think it's important not to denigrate them and do not in any way suggest that all the budget problems are caused by public employees. "
Harold Meyerson, Washington Post journalist, wrote that while workers were contributing to the defeat of the regime in Cairo, a state government in particular was going to dismantle workers' organizations here in the U.S.. He concluded that American conservatives often express their admiration for the value of workers from other countries who protest against authoritarian regimes. "Certainly, however, allow workers in home exercise their rights threatens to undermine some of our own schemes (especially Republicans) and what should not be allowed. Now that the governor of Wisconsin has issued his orders to the intervention of the Guard, we can distinguish a new model of solidarity repressive than that of the Pharaoh ... the Middle East to that of the Pharaoh ... the Midwest. "
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