GREAT NEWS! We have just upgraded our rewards on Kickstarter to include FREE EARLY LIVE STREAMING OF THE FILM AT ALL LEVELS OF GIVING! That’s right – for just $25 you will receive both a thank-you in the film credits AND early live streaming of the film – projected for June of 2016 – ahead of […]
SPOTLIGHT ON JOHN MATTHEWS, President, Madison Teachers, Inc. The teacher “sickouts” were some of the most dramatic work stoppages of the 2011 Wisconsin Uprising. Begun by Madison Teachers, Inc (MTI) and quickly joined by other teachers’ unions, the sickouts enjoyed widespread support from parents and students and helped to fuel the growing protest movement. In […]
SPOTLIGHT ON HARRIET ROWAN Just 22 years old at the time of the Uprising in 2011, Harriet Rowan became a central and highly respected figure in the capitol occupation. She was one of many college students who originally stayed overnight in the capitol to hold a place in line for other citizens expected to arrive […]
How is it that tens of thousands of protesters, over a hundred thousand on the week-ends, could not defeat the gutting of collective bargaining for state workers in Wisconsin? Divided We Fall takes a hard look at the 2011 Wisconsin Uprising to shed light on the successes and failures of this historic protest and prepare […]
I was shocked to learn this afternoon that Marty Beil, long-time leader of AFSCME Council 24, has passed away. I only met Marty once, when we interviewed him at the local AFSCME headquarters the day after he retired on June 30th. He spoke of his little granddaughter, how she had this bear of a man […]
This is how it’s done, folks! Solidarity doesn’t just mean union members hanging together, although that is crucial. It’s about labor alliances with community groups – environmental groups, civil rights groups, and so on. That is the ONLY way we will ever defeat even part of the corporate agenda. This AFSCME video shows how just […]
In his book Strike Back (2014), labor lawyer Joe Burns notes that in the early 20th century, the AFL was reluctant to grant charters to police unions. “Ambivalent about accepting police officers as members given their traditional role in busting strikes, the AFL initially rejected the police applications” (p18). Following the Boston Police strike of 1919, however, […]
Driving home yesterday I flipped on the Devil’s Advocates Radio show to hear Dom and Crute chortling over Scott Walker trying to grab a protest sign from a Wisconsin heckler at the Iowa state fair. Apparently, the SEIU and other activists are following him around and warning would-be supporters. A caller said that no, […]
In his book about public sector unions, Strike Back (2014), labor lawyer Joe Burns notes that the upsurge of public union activity in the 1960s and ’70s began, in part, “with the organizing efforts of a handful of teachers in New York City” (p29). At the beginning of the 1960s their salaries were so low that “a New […]
IOWA POLL: WALKER MAINTAINS POPULARITY WITH 7-POINT LEAD http://www.desmoinesregister.com/…/iowa-poll-scot…/28230505/ From the linked article: Scott Walker’s popularity streak in Iowa is real: He’s seven percentage points ahead of his nearest competition in the presidential horse race here, chased by a tight pack of four in a clear top tier: Ben Carson, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush and […]