A very good piece by pre-eminent historian Eric Foner appeared in the London Review of Books entitled the return of the class struggle:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/...
Foner makes several excellent points: the first one being that the class struggle has actually never disappeared so as to warrant a return; second, that what we are seeing in Wisconsin is the culmination of the attempt to destroy the remaining power of trade unions; and finally, that it is not the Democratic party's lukewarm support of its trade union base, but rather grass roots activists that are responsible for the fightback in Wisconsin.
On the return of the class struggle, Foner says the following:
Thanks to the public employees of Wisconsin, thousands of whom have occupied the state capitol building for the past several days, the class struggle has returned to the United States. Of course, it never really left, but lately only one side has been fighting. Workers, their unions and liberals more generally have now rejoined the battle.
What has been happening is simply that people that create the ideological discourse (i.e., politicians, the media, economists) don't like to use that term and pretend we are living in a classless society or that the notion of class is simply passe. In fact, the term is rarely used describe a situation irrespective of how appropriate unless it is being howled by the right anytime workers refuse to lie down and accept the political and economic conditions being foisted upon them by the government (municipal, state and federal) or by corporate interests. In fact, the term has been misappropriated by the right and the powers that be whenever they feel as though their interests are under attack.
On the second point, what is happening in Wisconsin is the culmination of a long-term strategy by corporations aided and abetted by our political leaders (of both parties) to undermine the power of the trade unions, lower standards of living and which has led to wage stagnation and extreme differentials in income. There is no doubt about it, the deliberate destruction of the manufacturing and industrial sector under the rhetoric of competitiveness and efficiency has destroyed the base of the trade union movement in the US (and the advanced capitalist world) and has shifted whatever industry/manufacturing remained to states with "right to work laws." Essentially, the state/public sector is the last bastions of organised labour in the US (and in most of the advanced capitalist world) and that is why so much of the austerity measures being introduced are trying to undermine the state sector and shift as much of it as possible over to the private sector and non-unionised workers.
In the past generation, the percentage of American workers who belong to unions has declined precipitously, not only because of concerted attacks by right-wing politicians and the corporations that fund them, but also because of deindustrialisation. Indeed, public employees have been the only group among whom union membership has risen.
On the final point, on the failure of the democratic party to actually fight to help workers organise and to stand up for their rights, Foner argues:
Sadly, until Wisconsin, leading Democrats have had little to say in defence of unions, even though, despite their weakened condition, they’re still an important part of the party’s base. President Obama has criticised Walker. But he has been far less outspoken about the struggle for democracy at home than he was (belatedly) about events on the streets of Egypt. Representatives of the American black elite, Obama among them, tend to share the free-trade, finance and technology-oriented economic outlook of upper-class whites, in which unions play little part. Like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton before him, Obama has shown no desire to promote legislation demanded by unions that would make it easier for workers to organise, or to address the problems that defined New Deal liberalism and remain all too relevant today: economic inequality, widespread unemployment and unrestrained corporate power.
The failure of the leadership of democratic party to back workers is, at this point, painful. Following a long line of betrayals of the American working class by the democratic party, the last straw for me came when instead of countering the demands of the right with respect to the budget deficit, President Obama in a token attempt to show that the was willing to throw his own base to the wolves, froze incomes and salaries of federal workers saving a pittance (in the whole scheme of the budget deficit). This not only was absurd in terms of its impact on the so-called deficit crisis (which has little to do with economics and everything to do with the destruction of the state sector, the social welfare state and the last bastion of trade unionism), but it made it quite clear that not only did our President accept their setting the terms of the discussion, but accepted their solutions as well.
As Foner points out this has allowed grass-roots agitation and mobilisation to lead the fight; this makes me wonder if we should thank the democratic party for this as this is a far better out-come to the situation and brings the people to the forefront and has changed the nature of the discussion and situation as the working class is actually saying exactly what it wants which needless to say runs counter to what the media and our politicians have been saying that they wanted all along.
Foner ends his discussion on a reflective note by wondering whether the WI national guard if called out will have the same response that we saw in Egypt (and which we are seeing in Libya that has led to the rapid demise of Gaddafi's power and influence) where the national guard refuses to fire on the people.