The Still-Groggy Giant

First appeared at SocialistWorker.org on 3/29/11.

The Still-Groggy Giant

ALMOST EVERY interview I heard from the Wisconsin protests included some version of the line "Scott Walker woke up a sleeping giant."

It got to the point where I was hoping to hear that teachers and nurses rampaged through the capitol building chanting, "Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of a Republican!" When workers in Madison finally stood up after taking years of abuse, they did indeed look like a giant towering over the Tea Party, which was suddenly revealed to be a little man with a big Fox News megaphone.

So what happened when Scott Walker poked the giant in the eye by ramming through his anti-union bill? More than 150,000 workers gathered to let out a mighty roar and vowed to...gather signatures to recall the governor next year.

Wait a second. Walker is trying to get rid of public-sector unions not next year but now--isn't there something more immediate and direct that can be done?

The fact that most protesters agreed with the recall strategy pushed by union leaders and politicians shows that even as workers begin to sense their power, they don't know how best to use it. In other words, the giant seems to wake up the way most of us do--groggy and with eye boogers.

In truth, workers have a weapon more powerful than the campaign contribution or the tri-folded brochure. We don't celebrate the great Flint Phone Bank of 1937 or remember how Eugene Debs organized railroad workers to campaign in swing states. By responding to Walker's passage of the bill with a recall campaign instead of a strike, unions are essentially bringing an online petition to a gunfight.

It's also a step backward from the participatory democracy that thousands experienced in the Capitol rotunda, where for two weeks a "people's mic" was open to all. Imagine if corporate lobbyists had to do their business in the rotundas of Capitol buildings instead of the private offices:

Uh, hi everybody. My name is Phil, and I work for Koch Industries. I think we should support this environmental exemption because it will make my company a boatload of money. Thank you, and God bless America.

On the recall campaign, free expression will be replaced by a script, which will praise the "Fab 14" Democratic senators for standing up to Walker but say precious little about what their party proposes to do if elected.

That's because the major debate in our two-party system today is whether to fund three wars and corporate tax breaks by stealing workers' pensions or to fund three wars and corporate tax breaks by stealing workers' pensions and busting their unions.

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WHAT THOSE weeks of protest in Wisconsin that captivated the national spotlight showed was that tens of thousands of workers in Wisconsin--and presumably millions across the country--reject that non-debate and were looking for a radical strategy to bring about a different outcome.

For the first time in generations, people who raised the idea of a general strike were not considered crazy--or French.

There hasn't been a general strike in this country since a couple of Scott Walker's Republican ancestors named Taft and Hartley passed a law in 1947 that barred workers from striking against anyone other than their direct employer. In other words, you are not allowed to withhold your labor to protest laws or support other workers in the land of the free.

Taft-Hartley denies workers their most powerful form of political expression and forces us to compete--with corporations--in the rigged game of American politics. To paraphrase Anatole France, American democracy, in its majestic equality, allows both workers and CEOs to donate a million dollars to candidates or invite them for rides on their private jets.

(Funny story about Taft-Hartley, by the way. Harry Truman and the Democrats campaigned the year after it was passed on a promise to overturn the law. So unions launched a massive turnout effort, re-elected Truman, won Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, and...we still have Taft-Hartley. Truman himself used it 12 times to break strikes in his second term.)

Unions have been fighting a losing battle ever since. Somehow, they managed to find $74 million in 2008 to elect a president who visited the Madison protests as many times as he visited the moon. They're vowing to raise even more in 2012. Jesus Christ, how are workers going to come up with that money? There are only so many binder clips and pens we can steal from the office.

If this strategy wasn't already obviously bankrupt, Republicans like Scott Walker are trying to drive the point home by abandoning the old rules and trying to eliminate unions entirely. You might think that this would be the time to say screw it and fight for survival.

But that's not how most labor leaders think. If one of these guys saw his house in flames, he would dash off to the bank to get money for a Democrat who promised to put out the fire after his election.

It's going to be up to the rank-and-file radicals (new and old) to find each other and figure out how to make this giant rise and shine.