AZ Legs resume bloody class war.

well-said, Ed. Thanks for the props to Mother Jones et al.

----from the Arizona Republic----

Leaders wage war on working people

 E. J. Montini, columnist

Feb. 2, 2012 

The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com

It would be inaccurate for me to suggest that the Arizona Legislature is waging a war on unions.

Legislators are very busy men and women with lots of important issues on their plate.

In order to be more precise and journalistically complete, I would have to point out that in addition to regular working people, Arizona lawmakers are waging war on children, on sick people, on poor people, on teachers and on unions.

Essentially, on all regular, hard-working people.

It's a big job. Legislators can't do it alone, and they don't have to. The Republicans who control the Legislature appear to be controlled by the lawyers who run the Goldwater Institute, and who do most of the heavy lifting for them.

For instance, Goldwater folks helped to produce a series of proposals approved in committee Wednesday that would ban collective bargaining by any government employee in Arizona, including police and firefighters.

In other words, the men and women whom we ask to conduct the daily business of government for rock-bottom wages, along with the men and women whom we ask to confront armed criminals or run into burning buildings, would have no opportunity to engage their employer in contract talks.

Given the dramatic changes proposed in the bills, it might seem puzzling that the first witness called by legislators described the proposal he was speaking about as a "modest change." That is, until you found out that the witness was a lawyer from (you guessed it) the Goldwater Institute.

The lawmakers say that these attacks on working people are "not personal." It's just business.

Big business. Mixed in with a little ignorance.

I'm wondering how many Arizona legislators would know the story of Mary Harris "Mother" Jones.

Would they know that in 1903, she led what was called the "March of the Mill Children" over 100 miles from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt's Long Island summer home? Roosevelt refused to see her.

Business interests at the time considered Mother Jones to be a radical making unreasonable demands. Do you think the lawmakers know what those demands were?

She wanted to reduce the 55-hour workweek. For children.

It was union workers who got the workweek reduced to 40 hours. And who got health-care benefits.

And paid vacations. And safety regulations. And all the other things that we now take for granted.

Some of those activists died in the effort to win the right of negotiation for regular folks.

And now members of the Legislature want to take them away.

These same legislators have made ongoing cuts to education, making it more difficult for children to learn about American history, perhaps because they themselves don't care about the past.

About transcendent events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire of 1911, in which more than 140 people, mostly women, died while locked in their sweatshop. Or the "Ludlow Massacre" of 1914, in which mine operators fired on workers and their families with guns.

Things have changed a lot since those awful days, of course.

We've gotten complacent. And in the process, clever politicians (and think-tank operatives) have persuaded working people to turn on other working people. They persuade us to envy and resent the benefits others enjoy, rather than using such people as examples of what all working people deserve.

This happens when you stop teaching or learning about labor icons like Mother Jones, Samuel Gompers, John L. Lewis, Walter Reuther, A. Philip Randolph or Cesar Chavez.

And instead elect men and women who don't know history or care about working people, and who listen only to high-priced lawyers in fancy suits.

Reach Montini at 602-444-8978 or ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

PHX Anarchists call on AZ Police to strike!

A fantastic idea from my comrades in the Phoenix Anarchist community for dealing with the heavy anti-union legislation coming around in AZ this session: the cops should declare their solidarity with the rest of us and strike instead of bash our heads in. Seriously.

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Attention Arizona Public Employees: Cops, Teachers and Paper Pushers Under Attack by the Anti-Union Bill 1485

February 2, 2012

By admin

Some Real Talk from Anarchists on How To Win This Fight

Seemingly out of nowhere a new front opens up in the battle to institute austerity from the bottom up in the United States and that front is Arizona. That’s not so surprising as the Republicans stated themselves from the get go that Arizona just makes sense due to the overwhelming anti-union legislature. Lets accept the new reality, Senate Bill 1485 will pass if nothing is done.

As if quoting from the classic novel “1984”, Republican Lori Klein characterized the bill as a “way of giving them more freedom so there can be flexibility.”

But make no mistake, this is a direct attack on workers in Arizona and if nothing is done to stop it, it will be modeled across the United States as the crisis we all face gets worse. In order for this kind of legislation to pass in Wisconsin, an exception had to be made for police and firefighters. Currently there is no such exception in the Arizona bill. We must oppose this exclusion.

Cops: Accepting this compromise will only amount to trading a short term defeat for one down the road.

Make no mistake, they will come for your pensions and wages eventually, and who will stand with you when they do? This is a battle and you don’t give your enemy everything for a temporary reprieve.

The winning solution demands creative strategy, and before we can get creative we need first to find out who is not offering any creativity. That answer in short would be the AFL-CIO, union leaders and Democrats.

The political and union bureaucratic class offer two pathetic options:

• Lay down and take it while threatening to vote lawmakers out of office later;
• Have a large protest at the state capitol

Interestingly, these arguments are coming from people who have consistently failed over and over to get elected. In fact, many of the more “progressive” lawmakers in our legislature have decided the only way to get voted in is to be just as conservative as the Republicans. The union bureaucracy is completely tied into this political class and will go down with the ship just as they have for decades.

When will Democrats and union leaders realize the more speakers you have at a rally does not equal the amount of political change you will achieve?

The answer is never, so now it is time to directly confront the situation at hand. With solidarity comes strength and the realization that this battle is not over until we win. The Democrats and the union bosses can follow if they would like, but without the workers directly effected taking the lead, they will not get this chance.

The business owners and anti-union Republicans are the proponents of the Arizona union bill. For all intents and purposes these groups are the same and should be treated as such. The power in the union is the strike and that is the weapon of choice. Back in the day the threat of a strike was enough to send the bosses running, unfortunately that history is mostly lost and the unions leaders are too afraid to use it because it jeopardizes their privileged position as labor brokers and second-tier management. The aim of the union bosses is to pacify us, to manage our transition into low wage, no benefit austerity. In short, to keep us contained.

So the history of the strike not only threatens the bosses, but the stranglehold that the Democrats and union bureaucrats have on organized labor.

The liberals want to have a rally at the capitol? Great. We know when the bill will be voted on, we can choose to have a rally that day. But what will the context of this rally be? What can everyone do to make things much more interesting?

We call on the police, who historically have stood on the opposing side of the strike and workers movements, to declare their solidarity and support for all Arizona workers.

If the police strike at the capitol, the legislators will then have to answer the people directly.

With the rest of the public employees declaring their intention to begin a general strike and march on and occupy the capitol we will make the uprising in Wisconsin look like a warm up.

Lets be clear, this is austerity. This law is designed to make everyone take the burden for what the business class has caused over the past decade, both in terms of the economic crisis but also in the form of billions of dollars in corporate tax breaks. As a community and city we can stand up and take a dramatic stand to defeat this bill which will encourage resistance across the United States. And hopefully, someone someday will say that Arizona unexpectedly did something nobody else dared to do….in a good way.

--------WAIT. BACK UP JUST A MINUTE...--------

What's this new Arizona bill all about, anyway? Here's a run-down from the Daily Kos earlier this week:

Arizona out-crazies Wisconsin on public sector unions. And more!

Tue Jan 31, 2012

by Mother MagsFollow

We don't cotton to other states elbowing in on Arizona's limelight of the crazy, so when Wisconsin and others voted to curb the influence of collective bargaining (and Ohio repealed the same), the dunderheads at the Arizona legislature decided to wipe out public employee unions altogether, writes Channel 12 reporter Brahm Resnik.

Wisconsin's collective bargaining law enacted last year made unions effectively irrelevant by limiting issues that could be bargained by a government and an employee group. Arizona's bills would do away with collective bargaining entirely and also go beyond Wisconsin law by including public safety unions. azcentral.com

As a "right to [not] work" state, Arizona already does not recognize collective bargaining by the public sector, but that's not good enough for anti-union zealots like the Goldwater Institute, the influential libertarian gaggle that hosted Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at their annual power-fest in November. During his talk and in an NBC interview, Walker touted his policies as creating more jobs and better schools: "People see the reforms are working." Yup, they see they're working so well that more than a million Wisconsinites signed up to recall your ass. After Walker's visit, the Goldwater Institute sat down with key Arizona lawmakers to write the new anti-worker legislation:

Despite claims that "right to work" states do not recognize collective bargaining by public employees, the truth is that "meet and confer" laws are collective bargaining laws... That's why a total ban on public-sector collective bargaining, like the state of Virginia's, makes fiscal sense even in "right to work" states like Arizona, Texas, Mississippi and Georgia. Goldwater Institute

That's right, employees can't "meet and confer" even if the get-togethers are non-binding. The state certainly wouldn't want to hear what representatives of employees have to say! So, to head off any such likelihood, the first of three new Arizona bills goes way beyond Wisconsin's attack on public employees by including fire and police in the mix, and by restricting all union activity:

23-1422.  Public employees; unions; prohibitions; enforcement

A.  NO STATE AGENCY OR POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS STATE IS VESTED OR POSSESSES ANY AUTHORITY TO:

1.  RECOGNIZE ANY UNION AS A BARGAINING AGENT OF ANY PUBLIC OFFICER OR EMPLOYEE.
2.  COLLECTIVELY BARGAIN OR ENTER INTO ANY EMPLOYMENT BARGAIN WITH ANY UNION OR ITS AGENTS.
3.  MEET AND CONFER WITH ANY UNION THAT REPRESENTS ANY PUBLIC OFFICER OR PUBLIC EMPLOYEE FOR THE PURPOSE OF DISCUSSING OR REACHING ANY EMPLOYMENT BARGAIN. SB 1485

Shut up, go away, nobody here wants to talk to anyone who represents workers. Another bill ends the practice of automatic payroll deductions for union membership fees:

THIS STATE AND ANY COUNTY, MUNICIPALITY, SCHOOL DISTRICT OR OTHER POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS STATE MAY NOT WITHHOLD OR DIVERT ANY PORTION OF AN EMPLOYEE'S WAGES TO PAY FOR LABOR ORGANIZATION DUES. SB 1487

We're going to make solidarity more expensive and more difficult, so there! A third bill bans compensation by public employees for union work:

ANY EMPLOYMENT BARGAIN THAT INCLUDES COMPENSATION TO PUBLIC EMPLOYEES OR THIRD PARTIES FOR UNION ACTIVITIES IS DECLARED TO BE AGAINST THE PUBLIC POLICY OF THIS STATE AND IS VOID. SB 1486

This three-pronged attack is in addition to Governor Brewer's plan to revamp the public employee system by offering state workers 5% of their salary to forgo union protections, as she told the annual ALEC gag-fest in Scottsdale:

Gov. Jan Brewer's proposal to offer 5 percent raises to state employees who agree to give up job protections under the merit system isn't sitting well with some workers... The proposal requires employees to opt out of the system, which reduces certain protections such as the right to appeal demotions and protection from termination without cause. Arizona Republic

According to the Blog for Arizona's story about the ALEC presentation, Brewer's proposal amounts "to returning to the spoils system of political patronage and cronyism." Not surprisingly, many public workers are not lining up to collect their 5% bonus:

Valerie LaMar, who works in the child-support division of the Department of Economic Security, said Brewer's proposal will make it easier to fire employees based on politics, gender, age, race and ethnicity. "It's a complete set-up," said LaMar, who has worked nearly 17 years for the state. "It would lead to cronyism. I want a pay raise, but as far as going uncovered, I don't want any part of it. This is where the nail hits the coffin." Arizona Republic

And more!
Finally, if citizens are concerned about groups like ALEC and the Goldwater Institute throwing their considerable weight around on issues like corrections, immigration, campaign finances, education, and collective bargaining, don't worry. In the future you won't know about it. A bill being heard this week seeks to exempt nonprofit groups from registering as lobbyists or declaring their affiliation during testimony -- all nonprofits, even those like Goldwater engaged in political activity.

House Bill 2565 is aimed at resolving a dispute about the Goldwater Institute, which frequently sends staffers to legislative-committee hearings to testify about bills -- some of which the conservative think tank has also drafted. Arizona Republic

If passed, the bill will exempt Goldwater and similar advocacy heavyweights from registering as lobbyists, making it harder to follow their legislative tracks; it will remove the limits on gifts that lawmakers can accept from these yahoos; and it eliminates quarterly lobbying reports.

In sum: Let's shit all over employees but not tell anyone who is sitting on the pot.

We are One: Defy Wells Fargo! APRIL 4, 2011.

Needless to say, all of the immigrant-chasing people like Brewer and Pearce do has only distracted the working class from who our real enemy is: the people in power who profit from exploiting us all. We need to take back our money.

These protests and days of action are all good and well, but one thing the King of Love knew well was the power of the extended boycott. These people just can't make enough money to make themselves happy without doing so at our expense, and we aren't really going to hurt them unless the whole working and struggling middle class (and their unions) divested economically from Wells Fargo - private citizens, community organizations, schools, and governments all being screwed by these people just need to walk away.

Enough with the lip service to "social responsibility" from corporations that just bury their body count more effectively to boost their bottom line, too. It's time to really push for meaningful public investment standards and tax laws that protect the rest of us from the corrosive greed of a few.

Anyway, I honestly don't know what protests are organized for Phoenix today - there's just an AFL-CIO lunchtime MLK/CHavez celebration listed on these' folks' website. (If you didn't already RSVP, forget it). I have my chalk and my autonomy, though, so I'll hit someone's sidewalk by the end of the day.

------------------------------

April 4 – Union, Community and Student Activists will mark the anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Job Actions, Sit-Ins and Protests

The union movement has called for “We Are One” actions across the country to mark this important anniversary and to call for solidarity with Wisconsin workers and the struggle for justice every where. Thousands of actions both big and small are being called not only by the unions but by community and student groups who are joining on this day.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he stood fighting for the dignity of 1,300 sanitation workers and their right to a union.

Workers across the country -- public sector and industrial like port workers -- are sick and tired of union busting and attacks on the working class. Here are just a few of the exciting things planned for April 4:

*Sit-in with Oakland teachers. More than 600 teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians who serve the mostly Black community in Oakland are facing layoffs. They will march to Wells Fargo bank, sit-in to demand that the banks pay their share. They will set up a classroom inside the bank to teach about the role of the banks and the economic crisis.

Find a Wells Fargo bank in your area to picket or leaflet. In Los Angeles, Baltimore and other cities Wells Fargo solidarity actions are already planned. In LA, SEIU health care workers and the Bailout the Peoples Movement will demand Wells Fargo stop foreclosures and evictions, too. For info call Betty Olson-Jones, Oakland Education Association President at 510-866-3676 in Oakland and in Los Angeles call John Parker at 323-899-2003.

*Wisconsin workers -- at the epicenter of the struggle for the rights of all workers -- continue their struggle with a variety of statewide events on April 4. Major marches Milwaukee and Madison will welcome Sanitation workers from Memphis, Tenn. and the California Longshore workers' ILWU Local 10 Drill Team

In Milwaukee, 3:30-6:01 pm, MLK Statue on MLK drive, march and rally with a moment of silence at 6:01 pm. In Madison, the Poor People’s March, meets at Madison City Hall at 5 pm. At t he Capitol's State St. Steps gather for "From Memphis to Madison Rally" and candlelight vigil on MLK Blvd. from the Capitol to Monona Terrace.

*In North Carolina a dynamic coalition of the NAACP, UE 150, Black Workers for Justice and the NC State AFL-CIO is spearheading actions. These organizations have been leading the fight for workers rights in the South. For a events go to: http://tinyurl.com/NAACPWeAreOne.

*In New York City area — Communication Workers of America (CWA) and student and community activists are marching on City Hall to demand and end to budget cuts and attacks on workers and "March and Rally for Jobs, Peace, Justice and Equality" 5:30 pm, Corner of Broad and Market Streets, Newark, NJ - For more info call 973-801-0001.

*Replaced UAW Local 174 drivers say, “You don’t have to go to Wisconsin. Union Busting Ryder Is Here In Detroit.” GM is using non-union drivers for "just-in-time" parts deliveries. Picket the GM Hamtramck Assembly plant in the morning. "We are one" event gathers at Campus Martius Park, marches to Labor Arch. http://www.metrodetroitaflcio.org/

AZCOPS and Protect Arizona.

Okay all, I gave the cops and firemen a hard time for being on board Russ Pearce's campaign in my tax shift shuffle post, and owe them an apology. Here's what the AZCOPS are working on - it's from their website. I hope they don't mind the link; they appear to want the publicity. I was hoping to have a Juvenile Prison Watch for AZ up before the DJC was slated to close - still probably a couple of months away from that, so I'm glad to see someone staying on top of this. 

I'm still way too ignorant myself to weigh in articulately about this - I know I don't support the plan to unravel that place this way, but I need some time to make an argument for a better vision of just how it should be unpacked (which is my ultimate goal, after all), because the place is still a nightmare for kids - and I'd think for people working in some of these facilities, too. I'm skeptical about the governor's agenda - it's not made in the best interests of youth - but I also don't think the legislative resistance is much more than show for certain constituencies - they know no one needs their votes on this anyway, so they can seem to be on the side of the working people once in awhile.

The real problem is that if the department unravels but we aren't dismantling the rest of the beast and really reworking juvenile "justice", then kids and resources will just get chewed up at the local level doing this same thing. That means men like Arpaio (and our ever-so-understanding county attorney's office) end up with discretion over who's criminalized and how critical resources for youth are distributed. All we'll have time to do anymore is react to abuse and neglect complaints and scramble to save our mentally ill kids from the adult prison system.

Meanwhile, the private prison industry is proactively employing lobbyists who have much better access to power there than any of the rest of us do (just try approaching an important man at the Senate about violence against sex workers, and see what happens). They know those bodies are going have to go somewhere, and that the public - via our legislators - has decided we don't ever want some of them back again.

So, why not make a little cash off our families' suffering? make sure the laws and sentencing mandates are tight enough to boost the next quarters' earnings' report. I'll bet we see a lot more children being charged as adults, now, too. That's the most disturbing probability of all. Keep an eye on who fights the hardest to lock young children away for life without parole - it's not all just law enforcement; someone's making big bucks from that.

I haven't checked their site out yet www.protectarizona.org  (the name sounds kind of...right-wing, doesn't it?). I'm just in and out of here today, so keep in mind that it's the cops' place when you drop in and take a look around. I don't imagine there are many abolitionists in the bunch at AZCOPS, but maybe we'll learn something from following what these folks have to say about the departmental closing as it unfolds. We may even find ourselves protesting on the same side of the street over some of these issues.

Wouldn't that be strange?

Don't forget your bandannas, if we are.

What's with the "juvenile prisons", anyway? Are we just doing miniature versions of adult prisons for them? No wonder it's all so screwed up. They don't work for adults, either. And if the whole boot-camp mentality trip was really all that useful in terms of rehabilitating violent offenders, I don't think there'd be such a high proportion of veterans in prison.

Anyway, at least there's someone who's shining some light on the place. Take a look and see what you think. If anyone wants to help get that AZ Juvenile Justice Watch site (whatever) off the ground, just let me know.

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AZCOPS launches campaign to stop Governor from closing juvenile prisons 

(Posted: Feb. 10, 2010)

This week, AZCOPS unveiled a new website that will serve as an online presence in a campaign to stop Gov. Jan Brewer from closing the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections in July.

PROTECT ARIZONA! (www.protectarizona.org) contains the truth about the Governor's plan to close juvenile correctional facilities and the impact on public safety. The website is one component of a media campaign to warn the public about the plan. Radio commercials and direct mail will also be used to communicate with citizens across the state...