Advancement Project

February 23, 2011

Why Middle America is Rising Up

Like most of us at this time, I am trying to make sense of the mass mobilizations demanding change in the Middle East and North Africa, and in the Middle of the United States. Last year, the people of Iran took to the streets and the images of protestors stirred admiration and hope. The Iranian people’s courage spread to the hearts and minds of citizens seeking change in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya. They are united in their bold step to rallying against oppressive regimes, despite the immense risks they face.

Last week, there were tens of thousands of protestors in Wisconsin standing up against a bill that strips public employees of the right to bargain collectively for anything but higher wages, and caps the amount of wage increases they may gain in negotiations. The uprising in Wisconsin is sustained and growing. Similar laws are being proposed in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, coupled with similar uprisings.

I am surprised that the mass mobilization fever made its way into the spirit of Americans. One reason for my astonishment is cynicism: I did not think we Americans had it in us because if we did, then there would have been mass uprisings against Wall Street for causing and then profiting from the economic crisis, against banks for the housing crisis, and against the government for the atrocities caused by post-Katrina policies. The spirit of uprising in the United States must be dormant if not dead, I thought, if these mega injustices of the last five years against the public good and for the benefit of private sector elite elicited nothing close to a collective demand for change.

The other reason for my surprise that the spirit of uprising has taken hold here is because I rationalized that we in the United States are not facing the magnitude of injustice that the people of the mobilized Middle Eastern and North African countries face.

So why are Americans mobilizing en masse now, and why against these laws?

An article published by AlterNet, “12 Things You Need To Know About the Uprising in Wisconsin,” provides key background information toward answering these questions. AlterNet reported that at the beginning of this year, Wisconsin “was on course to end 2011 with a budget surplus of $120 million.” A surplus. Newly-elected Governor Scott Walker then signed two business tax breaks and a healthcare policy plan that, among other things, lowered overall tax revenues. These actions transformed the surplus into a deficit. Governor Walker then used the deficit to go after the state’s public employees, using a law drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right-wing advocacy group that, as described in the AlterNet article, functions as “the connective tissue that links state legislators with right-wing think tanks, leading anti-tax activists and corporate money.”

The laws in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio are carefully crafted union busting schemes hatched by corporate interests. Profit-driven policymaking against the public sector rears its ugly head again! We know what it looks like now, and we no longer are blindsided. Apparently, we are also now poised to spring into action.

Perhaps catering to the private sector elite after Katrina and the economic and housing crises did not go unnoticed. The damage that was done is not in vain; maybe it just took some time to sink into our collective consciousness. Americans have woken up, with the help of our courageous Middle Eastern and North African sisters and brothers. While they are standing up to dictators and oppressive regimes, we are standing up for the integrity of our democracy and against the government continuing to operate like a brokerage firm for private profiteers. Ours is no less an urgent and just cause.