Be careful to keep the message sharp in the Wisconsin labor struggle. As I look at various opinion pieces and editorial cartoons this morning, I get a sense that the tide is turning, and not in a good way. It is absolutely essential in this struggle, and the labor struggles to come, that the issue be focused on RIGHTS.
The people who side with Governor Scott Walker have portrayed this as solely about money, and they have already displayed a flair for the pithy argument: "We're broke." If the world at large is persuaded that this fight is only about money, the workers lose big time, and so do their supporters.
If, as I believe, the workers are more concerned about Walker's attempt to take away their collective bargaining rights, then the message focus needs to stay there. Every letter to the editor, every protest sign, every crowd chant, needs to stay focused on the basic issue: Let Us Bargain.
It's not perfect as a bumper sticker, and if you've got a better one, I welcome it. But I do NOT want to see Democrats and labor get clobbered once again by the message machine making use of Fox News et al to portray decent working people as greedy bastards determined to protect their incomes at all costs.
Because ultimately, it's not an income issue. It's an issue of their right to ASK. And on that level, it's more about free speech than money.
Keep the faith, keep the focus. Preserve the right to bargain.
My apologies if somebody said all this already.
UPDATE: Right after I posted this, I found this welcome echo at Talking Points Memo:
The latest out of Wisconsin is that the two big public employee unions say they're willing to accept the givebacks contained in Gov. Walker's budget. Apparently all of them. But they refuse to budge on their collective bargaining rights. They say this has been their position all along.
Thanks for the feedback (that's you, Park Ranger) reminding me to put link and pull quote in the body of the diary, instead of down in the comments section.