The Police and Firefighter unions in Madison, Wisconsin have initiated a drive to direct attention toward major financial contributors to Gov. Walker and those complicit in the Governor’s ideological push to disembowel public employee worker rights in Wisconsin. The “Move Your Money” campaign targets the bank across from the Wisconsin Capitol which is a major contributor to Walker and which has a tunnel linked to the Capitol used by Walker to ferry lobbyists in to meet with Walker beyond the public eye and even when the Capitol was shut down to public access.
One can only be encouraged by the show of courage, ingenuity and solidarity by the Wisconsin police and firefighters in opposition to Gov. Walker’s bare-knuckled and abusive distortion of the legislative process to push through a union destroying measure. That law to denude the public employees, except police and firefighters, of the right to sit at the table and bargain in good faith over wages, benefits and working conditions reverses a tradition of over a half century in Wisconsin.
The campaign is gaining momentum in Wisconsin as the list of major contributors is being circulated and the public is encouraged to boycott those businesses as long as they continue to support Walker’s ideological war on public workers either publicly or financially. The first step was for patrons to close their accounts with the bank that is so aligned with Walker. Although the withdrawals at the branch only amounted to about $190,000 in one day, the symbolic nature of the effort and the risk of it expanding should draw the attention of Bank officials. The irony was not lost that the M&I Bank involved has taken $2 billion from the taxpayers in TARP funds that have not yet been repaid.
To be effective, this effort needs the support of all others throughout the country who have previously expressed support for the Wisconsin public employees. Boycotting products like Johnsonville Meats, Wal-Mart, Miller Beer and Sargento Cheese is something that we all can choose to do as an act of solidarity. The Wisconsin Police and Firefighters have two points exactly right. First, the attack on public employees is just a preliminary move that will impact police and firefighters as well if it is allowed to succeed. Second, backers of the regime attacking public employee rights care nothing about people or the noise from protests. They are concerned only with the transfer of wealth that underlies their strategy. Walker gave $200 billion dollars in tax breaks to corporations while taking over $1 trillion from schools and local governments.
The protesters believe that the only language that Walker and his supporters understand or respect is money. By the process of boycotting and reducing revenues to the financial backers of Walker and his supporters, there will be direct consequences. Perhaps the businesses that thought it wise to purchase influence through support for Walker will rethink that strategy. There are collateral consequences as well. People act by association and by habit. Once people get in the habit of making alternative purchases, they may not go back to purchasing the old products and services even after the boycott ends. Moreover, every time a consumer goes to make a purchase and chooses to buy an alternative motivated by the boycott, that consumer will be reminded of the need to vote against Walker and the GOP legislators who conspired with him. So the impact of the boycott may have greater and more long-lasting impact than may appear at first blush.
To be clear, no one doubts that Wisconsin and other states require stern and perhaps drastic measures to put their respective fiscal houses in order. It is also true that some reforms to employee pensions and benefits, public and private may be necessary adjustments as all share in the belt tightening. However, it was the financial collapse causes by mismanagement and Wall Street style greed and profligacy that stripped more than $14 Trillion from the economy and helped reduce tax based revenue by almost a third. It was not public employees who caused the collapse. To use the public employees unfairly as a scape goat for the problems that have a different and wider cause is unjust. It is fitting, and ultimately democratic that the people rise up and demand fairness and accountability. If that means loss of business for Walker supporters and loss of political office for Walker and other GOP legislators, so be it.
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