In 2011,
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker introduced the innocuously named “Budget Repair Bill.” The sweeping legislation contained
both fiscal measures — reduced support for public education, state
Medicaid programs, and regulatory agencies, as well as lower property and
capital taxes — and a labor law amendment that all but outlawed collective bargaining
for public sector employees and created new barriers to union organizing.
After
decades of neoliberal advance and the emergence of the Tea Party, none of this
— even in a state with a progressive history — was especially surprising. But
this time it sparked dogged
resistance: a two-and-a-half-week occupation of the State Capitol,
demonstrations topping one hundred thousand people, and “sick out” work
stoppages by teachers across the state.
When the
capitol was cleared, however, the mobilization that began with the demand to
“kill the bill” was funneled into the effort to electorally oust Walker . In the 2012 recall, in a replay of
the 2010 gubernatorial election, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett lost to Walker — by an even greater
margin than before.
The second
phase of Walker ’s anti-worker campaign began a few weeks ago, nearly four
years after the introduction of the “Budget Repair Bill.” In early February,
the governor issued a nearly two-thousand-page budget proposal that includes
deepened cuts (most notably an unprecedented $300 million reduction
in public higher education funding), laxer regulation of private schools and
public charters, and lower tax rates for large property owners.
Then just
last week, the legislature fast-tracked “right to work” (RTW) legislation.
RTW forbids contracts between unions and employers that require workers to
pay “fair share” dues or agency fees for union representation. Such
arrangements reduce the free-rider problem because the benefits won by a union
are distributed to all employees irrespective — per federal law — of any
individual’s decision to join the union.
After RTW
is enacted, more workers tend to opt out of paying dues — because, the
rationale goes, why pay for something when you can get it for free? — and the
union becomes less able to defend and advance workers’ interests. In the long
run, this depresses wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Act 10, Wisconsin ’s 2011 measure that curtailed
collective-bargaining rights for public sector workers, implemented RTW-style
legislation for public employees. Now the state is
targeting all workers.
The speed
of the attack has disoriented many. Whereas a few weeks ago liberals and
leftists — and even some portions of the moderate right — were focused on defeating the budget
cuts, they have been forced to rapidly respond to RTW. Organizations like
the Teaching Assistants’
Association have their attention and energy split.
The
frenetic timeline, the layered assaults on public institutions, the sneaky
legislative procedures, and the utter disregard for public testimony or
democratic input trigger flashbacks to 2011.
Indeed, the
unavoidable similarities between 2011 and the present moment have many on the Wisconsin left demoralized. The
cumulative failures of the 2011 uprising, the 2012 recall attempts, and the
2014 reelection of Walker weigh heavily, draining energy and
strategy for renewed mobilization. If one hundred thousand protesters at
the capitol in 2011 only led to an even more emboldened Walker and deeply conservative
legislature, what can we do this time around?
The past
few weeks have seen some mobilization, and the budget hearings over the coming
weeks will likely generate more resistance. However, compared to 2011, the
activity has been modest, contained, and tinged with despair.
The
response to the budget cuts has been mostly limited to the University of Wisconsin campuses, and demonstrations
opposing RTW have not succeeded in delaying the legislation. Indeed, the bill
passed the Wisconsin Senate on February 25, the day after being submitted to
committee. With the state assembly starting final debate today, it could become law as early as this week.
Whereas
passage of the 2011 legislature required Democratic votes to achieve quorum,
Republican lawmakers ushered the RTW bill through without financial provisions, bypassing quorum and
eliminating the possibility of Democratic legislators deploying the stall
tactics that garnered them near-celebrity status in 2011.
But
assuming nothing can be done to respond to Walker ’s latest moves is wrongheaded. This
position reflects a narrowing of the political imagination common in the
neoliberal era. It envisions politics as the realm of officials and electoral
campaigns, a stunted conception that results from the near elimination of other
effective actions like workplace organizing and strikes.
This has
produced the first misconception leftists must reject: the popular belief that
we find ourselves facing Walker ’s second offensive because the 2012
recall efforts failed. Rather, the real moment of defeat came with the
decision to redeploy the 2011 movement’s energy into the recall.
The recall
strategy was a conscious choice by the movement’s leadership rather than a
decision straightforwardly determined by conditions on the ground. The official
labor leadership and Democratic Party–affiliated organizations largely forced
this choice by adopting a “settle-at-any-cost” strategy instead of
encouraging the rank-and-file mobilization that had emerged. In addition, this
framing generated a flimsy political litmus test (pro-Walker or anti-Walker)
that created a low bar for Democratic candidates and limited the amount of
serious political content being debated.
The goal
dropped to removing Walker , rather than stopping or slowing
the austerity agenda (or these were treated as synonymous). Indeed, no
candidate even verbally committed to returning to the 2010 status quo (hardly a
year remembered for its great socialist triumphs), and Barrett himself ran an
austerity program in Milwaukee and openly agreed with the fiscal
aspects of Walker ’s proposal.
The second
miscalculation that plagues Wisconsin leftists today is an undue shortening of
the time horizon, which can give rise to both defeatism — declaring there is
nothing to be done — and adventurism — insisting on immediate, high-risk
actions. This truncation obscures the long, slow, and crucial work of
organizing and movement-building.
The prevailing
belief posits that the only victories worth mobilizing for are either immediate
legislative wins — e.g., the defeat of the proposed budget cuts or RTW bill —
or an electoral reconfiguration, such as a midterm or recall election (the
first recall petitions circulated within days of the 2011 proposal).
A sober
assessment of the current political landscape suggests both of these are
unlikely at best, and probably altogether off the table. RTW will breeze
through the Wisconsin Assembly, and the Republican-dominated legislature will
likely offer minimal revisions to the proposed budget cuts.
There is
little energy to sustain either gubernatorial or legislative recalls,
especially after the political debates in 2012 fizzled into a distracting
sidebar about the legitimacy of the recall procedure itself rather than the
political issues at hand. Impatience can also lead to hasty calls for a general strike, without investing
the time and work required to build movements strong enough to support one.
The final
miscalculation reinforces a cognitive map of the social world that parcels the
working class into separate categories concerned with separate issues. For
example, the protests in 2011 were considered a “union issue” rather than a
“student issue” or “black issue,” which rendered these groups and the
legislative impacts on them less visible. This invisibility eliminates
political agency and forces undue isolation on those most affected.
Rather than
seeing ourselves as embedded in a community of shared fate and struggle, we
view ourselves as disconnected or at odds with each
other. This severely limits our collective capacity to create a new
form of politics, primarily because we fail to see each other, much less unite
and mobilize for our mutual struggles.
Though the
2011 Wisconsin Uprising faced immediate setbacks, it did provide an opportunity
for activists in often-unconnected movements to learn to stand alongside each
other. Likewise, while our immediate prospects may be dim, the way we mobilize
now — even if we fail to stop the austerity budget or RTW — can lay the
groundwork for future victories.
In 2011,
connections were formed between rank-and-file union members, racial justice
advocates, student organizations, native rights organizations, and
environmental groups. The union bureaucracy clearly led the mobilization, with
other social justice organizations — especially the racial justice organizations
— relegated to the margins.
This time
around, the character of the mobilization has begun to shift. Having ruled
out the possibility of electoral victories or short-term solutions, many on the
Left have begun to look more deeply at issues like racial justice and how they
relate to the battle against austerity.
The Young
Gifted and Black Coalition (YGB) — the core of the Black Lives Matter movement in Madison — has become one of the central
organizations mobilizing against Walker ’s new budget. Making the connection
between the black freedom struggle and fiscal policy, the YGB’s primary focus
has been opposing the $8 million jail expansion in Madison ’s Dane County . These connections are crucial in Wisconsin , where, for instance, expenditures
on corrections surpassed those on higher education in 2011, and where racial
disparities are some of the worst in
the country.
There is no
denying that workers and students have suffered a series of defeats in the past
four years. And there’s no denying that our forces were weakened in 2011, with
public sector unions losing some two-thirds of their membership after Act 10
took effect. This will get even worse soon, with Wisconsin likely becoming the twenty-fifth
RTW state in the country.
But while
the Left seems to be failing, our task, in this moment, is to learn to “fail
better” and build stronger movements in the future.
> The article above was written by Eleni Schirmer &
Michael Billeaux and is reprinted from Jacobin magazine's website.
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