For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, February 25, 2011

Poland’s Solidarność Union Tells Wisconsin Workers: “Your Victory is Our Victory as Well”

Washington, DC — In a remarkable expression of international solidarity among working men and women, the president of “Solidarność” (“Solidarity”) – the Polish trade union whose determination and courage led to the fall of the Iron Curtain – has written an open letter in support of the public employees of Wisconsin.

Document: 

Letter of support from Polish union to Wisconsin workers.pdf

From inside the Wisconsin State Capitol, RAN ally Ryan Harvey reports:

“Hundreds of cops have just marched into the Wisconsin state capitol building to protest the anti-Union bill, to massive applause. They now join up to 600 people who are inside.”

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Thousands of union members rallied in the rain outside New Jersey’s Capitol to protest Governor Chris Christie’s proposed benefit cuts and show support for workers fighting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s bill to limit collective bargaining.

Here’s a thought: maybe Madison, Wis., isn’t Cairo after all. Maybe it’s Baghdad — specifically, Baghdad in 2003, when the Bush administration put Iraq under the rule of officials chosen for loyalty and political reliability rather than experience and competence.

MADISON, WIS -- For the past ten days, tens of thousands of union protesters have swarmed the state capitol building in Madison, Wis. to protest Republican Governor Scott Walker's proposal to yank collective bargaining rights from some public-sector unions.

But it isn't just students from the University of Wisconsin protesting alongside the nurses, teachers, and trash collectors Walker has directly targeted. Police officers and firefighters have joined the demonstrations even though Walker exempted them from his bill, and private sector workers from near and far have entered the fray as well. They see Walker's proposal not as an attempt to save the state money but as an attack on unions.

Feb. 22, 2011 - Day 9 of the worker's rights protests in Madison, WI: The Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Tammy Baldwin march in solidarity with firefighters and others gathered in the capitol rotunda, then speak to the gathered crowd. Video by Dane101's Emily Mills.

A website being used to help organize protests against Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin has been blocked from the Capitol Building in Madison, according to reports.

The site, http://www.defendwisconsin.org/, was inaccessible from the building on Monday and into Tuesday morning, CNN reported.

Standing in front of American and Wisconsin flags, former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello played to an audience of 4,000 Monday at Monona Terrace at a performance set up by AFSCME to oppose the budget repair bill.

"Whenever there's an economic hardship, [Republicans] take advantage of that to ram through some legislation that's going to roll back decades, if not a century, of social progress," Morello said. "But they miscalculated. They miscalculated because they tried to begin doing that in Wisconsin."

In the past 24 months, those of us who longed for positive change have gone from hope to heartbreak. But hope is returning to America -- at last -- thanks largely to the courageous stand of the heroes and heroines of Wisconsin.

Reinvigorated by the idealism and fighting spirit on display right now in America's heartland, the movement for "hope and change" has a rare, second chance. It can renew itself and become again a national force with which to be reckoned.

WASHINGTON — Among the thousands of demonstrators who jammed the Wisconsin State Capitol grounds this weekend was a well-financed advocate from Washington who was there to voice praise for cutting state spending by slashing union benefits and bargaining rights.