Progressive Spark, Feingold in Wisconsin

 UPDATE: POSTED A BETTER LINK ABOUT THE SITUATION IN WISCONSIN

Perhaps Egypt nudged Americans to wake up a little from their restless sleep and find the open streets forum. Perhaps it took the middle east demonstrations for Americans to finally get it that the only real platform of power for citizens under any kind of economic system is the streets.

Yet, have Americans learned from Egypt it isn't just flooding into the streets for a day or two that brings about real power and change?  Have workers understood the impact of flooding into the streets in very large numbers and staying put until your demands are met?  We will have to stay tuned to what happens in Madison, Wisconsin. The key is not only in numbers but, crucial, also in staying.  What lasting effects can a sudden but short presence in the streets have on  the comfort of the status quo or the deciders of the cash balance sheets?

Sudden but short demonstrations pass. Things return to the pathological "normal."  Borders get more secured. Years pass.

Moreover, the pathological normal tends to get reactively worse. Those deciders, self-appointed through accumulated piles of money, demand casualties (deaths, incarcerations, beatings). It likes clean and orderly streets to conduct its business in.


What am I getting at here? Holding on or getting back to is our current pathological normal. While corporate profits are rising at an alarming rate, workers, public and private, for the most part, are fighting to sustain what they have.To sustain or to get back to should not be the driving issue here. To equalize should be the issue. That should be the goal of the new century. Already we are eleven years behind our potential in this.  Workers and management should stand equals across the table from one another in the 21st century. Without workers, management cannot accumulate profits. Workers in fact need to catch up to management  in the profits column. That should be a given by this historical time. In our "as in" work condition, that's the premise from which all workers should begin negotiating their pay and their benefits today.

 I'm not sure exactly why workers continue to accept the dominant system of employer decides all, but it's apparent, by the systematic economic upheavals, that the corporate takeover of America is clearly frightened of workers. The last thing the bankers and others in power positions  (See George Carlin) want is for American workers to realize their real untapped power to stand as equals and make "this is the way it is" demands over their own economic conditions. The scales have been so tipped against workers for so long that meeting in some arbitrary middle should be on hold for a very long time. It should be all catch up from this day forward. Collective bargaining does little more than afford an arena for that untapped power to come into play. It's up to the workers in their unions to make it happen. It's up for all workers to organize into collective bodies called unions in order to stand face to face with management on equal grounds at the table to determine their catch-up terms. And if you don't like the word unions, make up another name for it, or put together another collective power structure that generates a voice that lays out the terms to catch up.

While, yes, it's refreshing to see so many people at the state capital in Madison, Wisconsin, we should also note the implications.  I'm 100% in support of what is taking place. But one or two days in the streets is not enough for workers to hold onto what they have. More importantly, it isn't enough for workers to finally once and for all gain control over their pay and benefit levels in exchange for their labor and time.

Egypt has now provided a fine example of how to get started.