Sic the National Guard on the Workers!

[Z06PDQ]

Wisc. Governor Makes a Threat to Sic the National Guard on Union Workers
AlterNet / By Mike Elk

If the National Guard is called out in Wisconsin, workers across the country should take a page from Egypt and go out on a general strike.

Wisc. Governor Makes a Threat to Sic the National Guard on Union Workers | Economy | AlterNet

February 16, 2011

Last week, Wisconsin's Republican governor Scott Walker threatened to use the National Guard if his state's public employees go on strike in response to his proposal to strip them of the right to bargain collectively.

By merely mentioning the possibility of deploying the Guard to prevent a strike, Governor Walker has threatened to militarize the attack on unions. The 150-year history of the American labor movement shows that such moves often lead to the deaths of union members.

Some observers claim that Governor Walker was merely “alerting the National Guard” in order to take over Wisconsin's correctional facilities if the prison unions went out on strike. However, such preparation could have been made in private without risking the criticism Walker has received since raising the issue. By announcing it publicly, Walker was attempting to intimidate unions with the threat of force; his militarization is creating a toxic climate of fear and violence in which an inspired right-wing nutjob might feel justified attacking union members.

It is important to grasp the role of violent intimidation by both the state and privately run militias in order to understand why Governor’s Walker’s attack is such a troubling move in a democracy.

The first time state militias were called out to stop striking workers was during the Great Railroad Strike of 1876, the first nation-wide labor action that shut down railroads from coast to coast. At the time, Thomas Alexander Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad told reporters the strikers should be given "a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread." State militia members joined side by side with private citizens and killed over 100 striking workers in a dozen cities across the United States. In Pittsburgh, over 50 strikers were killed in one of the bloodiest confrontations of the strike.

State militias, often aided by private militias like the Ku Klux Klan, would be called out on other occasions to wreak violence on workers demanding their rights. In 1887, the Louisiana militia, accompanied by a posse of "prominent citizens," killed 37 unarmed black sugar workers striking to demand a dollar-per-day wage.

Before the Columbine High massacre that we remember, there was the Columbine Mine Massacre in 1927, where six unarmed, striking miners were killed by a combination of private mine guards and state police. During the Colorado Labor Wars, private and state-run militias took turns terrorizing and killing union miners. At the Ludlow Massacre, the governor of Colorado even allowed private strikebreakers to be sworn into the National Guard for the occasion of raiding a camp of union miners. That resulted in the deaths of 19 people, including 12 children. When the National Guard ran out of money to continue its campaign against the unions, John Rockefeller offered to pay for it.

The lines between the violence doled out by state security and private militias became even more blurred with the formation of the American Legion in 1918. Former U.S. Marine Corp Major General Smedley Butler, author of War is A Racket, testified before Congress that the American Legion “is nothing but a strike-breaking outfit used by capital for that purpose, and that is the reason we have all those big clubhouses and that is the reason I pulled out of it. They have been using the dumb soldiers to break strikes."

American Legion veterans beat and often killed union activists throughout the country. In 1919, American Legion members in Centralia, Washington, raided an Industrial Workers of the World hall, killing six.

Continued . . .

[Y2Kvert4me]

Nothing like extreme exaggeration to make a point that doesn't exist.


A more accurate description of reality:

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/...d-send-out-na/

[Peter Pan]

Do what Reagan did fire them and hire new workers at lower wages to save the tax payers $$, we also need to look at this at the Federal level and I am all for this in the state of Texas, I see way to many idle state/federal workers when I go into state/federal agencies, they got a job for life, time to change that like in most civilian work places (non-union), the fat and lazy are terminated

[Z06PDQ]

Originally Posted by Y2Kvert4me

Nothing like extreme exaggeration to make a point that doesn't exist.


A more accurate description of reality:

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/...d-send-out-na/

"prepared to call out the national guard." only one way to interpret that.

[Z06PDQ]

Originally Posted by Peter Pan

Do what Reagan did fire them and hire new workers at lower wages to save the tax payers $$, we also need to look at this at the Federal level and I am all for this in the state of Texas, I see way to many idle state/federal workers when I go into state/federal agencies, they got a job for life, time to change that like in most civilian work places (non-union), the fat and lazy are terminated

**** that. let's just hire illegals & pay them whatever the **** we feel like. I love you hypocrites that post here on the company computer & on the company's dime when you talk about "fat & lazy" union workers. ****ing hilarious.

[Y2Kvert4me]

Originally Posted by Z06PDQ

"prepared to call out the national guard." only one way to interpret that.

Yes, and "sic them on the workers" certainly ain't it.

[Z06PDQ]

Originally Posted by Y2Kvert4me

Yes, and "sic them on the workers" certainly ain't it.

I'm allowed a little "poetic license."

[ChasC5]

Originally Posted by Z06PDQ

I'm allowed a little "poetic license."

This is what happens when their candidate losses ... four years of babble and crying.

[Y2Kvert4me]

Originally Posted by ChasC5

This is what happens when their candidate losses ... four years of babble and crying.

Who lost?

I voted for Walker this past Nov. He is now our Governor.

Glad he is taking measures to get the state budget back on track by starting from within first. It's exactly what we elected him to do.

The only crying I've seen here was from the resident pro-union lib that actually believes WI is somehow empowering the military to attack union members.

[ChasC5]

Originally Posted by Y2Kvert4me

Who lost?

I voted for Walker this past Nov. He is now our Governor.

Glad he is taking measures to get the state budget back on track by starting from within first. It's exactly what we elected him to do.

The only crying I've seen here was from the resident pro-union lib that actually believes WI is somehow empowering the military to attack union members.

Are you still

[Y2Kvert4me]

Originally Posted by ChasC5

Are you still

Nope, I'm

[Peter Pan]

Originally Posted by Z06PDQ

**** that. let's just hire illegals & pay them whatever the **** we feel like. I love you hypocrites that post here on the company computer & on the company's dime when you talk about "fat & lazy" union workers. ****ing hilarious.

You are the hypocrite here, I am off and I run the company fat & lazy, where did I say illegals, I want to lock down the border and send the illegals home, you are off base here as usual

[Z06PDQ]

Originally Posted by Peter Pan

You are the hypocrite here, I am off and I run the company fat & lazy, where did I say illegals, I want to lock down the border and send the illegals home, you are off base here as usual

don't lie. we see you on here all the time when you should be working. even if you "run" the company you are "fat & lazy" for posting on here when you could be devoting time to the company. especially when you bash union members by calling them "fat & lazy."

[Z06PDQ]

Originally Posted by ChasC5

Are you still

he still can't change "prepared to call out the National Guard."

[Y2Kvert4me]

Originally Posted by Z06PDQ

he still can't change "prepared to call out the National Guard."

Nope, not a thing wrong with preparedness.

[Exotix]

Guys, this is another instance of what is now known as the GOP increase unemployment no jobs agenda ... this is how the GOP thinks it's coming in as the POTUS and congressional majority in 2012 as part of the Obama is a one-term president agenda ...

Good luck with that high-treason traitors ...

[Peter Pan]

Originally Posted by Z06PDQ

don't lie. we see you on here all the time when you should be working. even if you "run" the company you are "fat & lazy" for posting on here when you could be devoting time to the company. especially when you bash union members by calling them "fat & lazy."

Who are you to know when I should be working? I set the hours and some days are short and some really long, I can post as a free man, oh if I make less I send in less in taxes, not my way, I put in more hours than when I served in the military, but then I do not punch a clock like hourly and union workers, if I am fat & lazy I do not hurt another worker just my bottom line and no one else as a private company with no share holders, my wifey is on me to actually cut back on my hours, oh after my car accident last summer that has happened, no more 6 or 7 day weeks, oh I do not understand the concept of overtime or paid sick leave or vacations the rest of America understands, so get a life and pick on a non owner on being fat & lazy, like yourself the union thug and those that work for someone wanting more of the profits as after all you/they are entitled to more than a fair share

[Y2Kvert4me]

Originally Posted by Exotix

Guys, this is another instance of what is now known as the GOP increase unemployment no jobs agenda ... this is how the GOP thinks it's coming in as the POTUS and congressional majority in 2012 as part of the Obama is a one-term president agenda ...

Good luck with that high-treason traitors ...

No, actually, it's the "fix the upsidedown budget" agenda, and that means trimming some fat.


If you're the fat, you might not like it.

[Exotix]

Originally Posted by Y2Kvert4me

No, actually, it's the "fix the upsidedown budget" agenda, and that means trimming some fat.


If you're the fat, you might not like it.

You have a point ... if there's anything I'm stymied about ... are states all of a sudden going bankrupt about the time Bush is leaving office ...

[ChasC5]

Originally Posted by Y2Kvert4me

No, actually, it's the "fix the upsidedown budget" agenda, and that means trimming some fat.


If you're the fat, you might not like it.

But but but but ,,, what about the Campaign for JOBS?

You do remember the Campaign we had a few months ago.

I can go back and post how genuinely concern the GOP were about JOBS.