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Showing videos filed under: Panel Discussions
Rosa Clemente & Sen. Lena Taylor: United in Wisconsin
March 9, 2011"There is a time to fight and a time to unite, and now is the time to unite. If we divide now when we are trying to win the war, then I think we have fallen right into the divide and conquer mentality," says Wisconsin State Senator Lena Taylor, still in an undisclosed location outside of her state to delay a vote on Scott Walker's union-busting "budget repair" bill.James Mumm & Bobby Tolbert: Make Wall Street Pay
March 9, 2011"We're seeing apopulist wave right now that's going to go through 2012," says James Mumm of National People's Action, who says he's seeing "big ideas and bold demands" from progressive groups around the country. National People's Action is part of a coalition that shut down a Bank of America this week and protested at the National Association of Attorney Generals conference, and then took the fight to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell's offices in Congress.Maria Isa & Lah Tere: Dancing to the Puerto Rico Revolution
March 5, 2011"Now we have the opportunity to open our books and write our history. Now we're baking the bread and we're going to make them eat it," says Maria Isa, hip-hop artist and activist. Maria and fellow Puerto Rican artist Lah Tere were in Puerto Rico when protests began last year--protests that have seen students and workers in the streets over budget cuts and tuition hikes, seen peaceful demonstrators teargassed by police. Protests as dramatic as anything in the UK, Egypt, Tunisia, or Wisconsin--yet almost never seen on US news despite taking place in the US.Mahlon Mitchell & Fred Schepartz: Workers Solidarity in Wisconsin
February 25, 2011Though Scott Walker has claimed that the fight in Madison is mostly outsiders being brought in by the unions, Madison residents know otherwise. Workers' rights are near and dear to the hearts of many people in Wisconsin, and not just those who are under threat of having their collective bargaining rights slashed. The Wisconsin firefighters are exempt from Walker's actions, but have been rallying in support of the workers, and Madison's Union Cab is a worker-owned collective, but they too have joined the protests.Ben Manski & Kabzuag Vaj: Making a Bigger Movement in Wisconsin
February 24, 2011"This movement has to expand, we have no choice. They have no interest in compromise. . . we have to bend them or break them, because that's what they're doing to working class people in this state," says Ben Manski of Wisconsin WAVE, a new organization fighting austerity measures. He notes that labor organizations have nearly unanimously voted for a call for a national general strike should Scott Walker's attack on unions be signed into law. And Kabzuag Vaj of Freedom, Inc. notes that, "If Governor Walker can attack people with some resources to fight back, he has no fear of poor people or people who have no resources."Spencer Black & David Newby: Koch Money Behind Scott Walker
February 23, 2011"Wisconsin has a proud tradition in terms of labor, the environment, of people standing up to the power and money of big corporations," says Spencer Black, former chair of the Wisconsin State Assembly Natural Resources Committee. And those big corporations don't like that tradition one bit. The Bradley Foundation, a right-wing organization with connections with the billionaire Koch brothers, has poured money into Walker's anti-union, anti-worker campaign, and they're not stopping with union busting.Scot Ross & Rep. Cory Mason: Battles Across Wisconsin
February 23, 2011The fight against Scott Walker's attack on working people isn't just in Madison--and it isn't just about a budget repair bill, say Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now and State Assemblyman Cory Mason. Hundreds of people are protesting and attending town halls in towns across the state, sometimes towns with only a few thousand people living in them. And if you think the fight is messy now, just wait until Walker rolls out his actual budget.Mary Bottari & Mark Pocan: National Implications in Wisconsin
February 22, 2011"People understand this is a national struggle," says Mary Bottari of the situation in Wisconsin right now, and Mark Pocan, Wisconsin State Assemblyman from the 78th District, says "This has to be the spot where we stop it nationally." If Scott Walker manages to take away the workers' right to collective bargaining, they point out, other states will do the same--Ohio and Indiana are already trying.Diane Palmer & Sheila Cochran: Who Gets Hurt With Walker's Cuts
February 22, 2011If Scott Walker is allowed to gut public employees' right to collective bargaining, Sheila Cochran of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council points out, it will lower the floor for all Wisconsinites' wages and benefits. The unions in the state have long helped keep wages high and benefits, including health care, good for all of the state's workers, even as factories have closed and jobs gone overseas.John Nichols & Matt Rothschild: Who's Behind Wisconsin Union-Busting?
February 22, 2011"Unions realize that this is a threat to their very existence," says Matt Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, of Scott Walker's attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers. And some of the usual suspects are behind Walker's attack--from the Koch brothers to Republican ideologues. "These corporations want to get these people off the playing field," says John Nichols, of The Nation.
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