Update III

(I've decided to insert "Update" posts as needed rather than weekly, so I'll edit the previous titles to reflect this change.  Expect an update about every 7-10 days, depending on the topics covered.)
  
Wisconsin and Union Rights Protests

Resistance to Gov. Scott Walker’s union-restricting agenda continues in Wisconsin, with few signs of ending any time soon. From various sites in Illinois fourteen state senators are preventing the quorum necessary to pass any fiscal measures in the State Senate. Yesterday (March 1) Gov. Walker unveiled a state budget for the 2011-2013 biennium that Democrat legislators, protesters in Madison, and their stay-at-home supporters are denouncing for its draconian cuts to school districts and local governments. Stay tuned by going to the web sites of Wisconsin TV stations and newspapers (as listed in "Cairo in Wisconsin?").

1) In my first post on the Wisconsin protests (Feb 20) I suggested that when protesters decided to occupy Wisconsin’s iconic Capitol, they were carrying out, deliberately, a symbolic act. I can now support this interpretation with visual evidence from a Washington Post photo gallery (1). In the center of the first slide there is a sign proudly proclaiming, "Whose house? Our house!"

• "Wisconsin Budget Battle: Protesters Rally Against Anti-Union Bill" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2011/02/19/GA2011021900272.html?sid=ST2011022103805). This is an excellent collection of 53 slides (so I’ve deleted an earlier slideshow of poor photos and put this one in its place).

2) For more analysis of Wisconsin’s pro-union protests (and more historical background) listen to these segments from WUWM (89.7 FM)’ "Lake Effect" program:

• Lake Effect (2-23-2011): "Analyzing the Fireside Chat" (9:24). Mitch Teich interviews David Canon (UW-Madison, Professor of Political Science). URL: http://www.wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/view_le.php?articleid=1184
• Lake Effect: "Wisconsin’s Labor History" (9:06). Dan Harmon interviews Steven Meyer (UW-Milwaukee, Professor of History, specialist in Wisconsin’s labor history). Meyer is the author of "Stalin Over Wisconsin": The Making and Unmaking of Militant Unionism, 1900-1950 (New Brunswick, 1992). URL: http://www.wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/view_le.php?articleid=1184
• Lake Effect (2-17-2011): "The Stakes of Gov. Walker's Plan to End Collective Bargaining" (12:00). Bonnie North interviews Philip Dine (George Washington University, Adjunct Professor of Labor Management Relations). Dine is the author of State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence (McGraw Hill, 2007). URL: http://www.wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/view_le.php?articleid=1179

3) For a list of solidarity rallies around the US visit the Jobs With Justice site (http://www.jwjblog.org). From the blog’s menu of recent posts, select "Worker Solidarity Rallies Planned." This brings up a roster of last week’s events (February 20-26) as well as this week’s rallies. Students could plot these on a US map to discover how labor issues are spreading.

• From the JWJ About page: "At Jobs with Justice, our goal is to build a strong, progressive labor movement that works in coalition with community, faith, and student organizations to build a broader global movement for economic and social justice."

4) Unions--public and private--are under attack in virtually all 50 states. Two articles in The Nation provide detailed information about nation-wide efforts to ban or restrict unions:

• Jane McAlevey, "Labor's Last Stand." The Nation (2-16-11).
  URL: http://www.thenation.com/article/158640/labors-last-stand
• Robert Pollin and Jeffrey Thompson, "The Betrayal of Public Workers." The Nation (2-16-11).
  URL: http://www.thenation.com/article/158647/betrayal-public-workers.

More Signs of Connectivity Among Dissidents and the Disgruntled

In "Cairo in Wisconsin?" the Lynx pointed out that some protesters in Madison had signs referring to the Egyptian uprising against Mubarak. Since the fall of Mubarak, his dictatorship has receded into the realm of history and so there are few signs making explicit parallels between Mubarak and Gov. Walker. There are, however, plenty of "Stop the Imperial Walker" signs, alluding to the four-legged monster robot of the Star Wars movie (2). See, for example, slide # 23 in the Washington Post gallery, "Wisconsin Budget Battle."

It is still a viable strategy to launch a discussion of on-going protests in the US and abroad by acknowledging that protesters may be drawing inspiration from the success of the Egyptian uprising (3). Now I can point to a photo of a "Walk Like an Egyptian Sign" that illustrates "cognitive connectivity" between the current crop of protesters in the US and those in North Africa and the Middle East. See slide #23 in "The 100 Best Protest Signs At The Wisconsin Capitol" (http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-best-protest-signs-at-the-wisconsin-capitol).

I’ve discovered that the title "Cairo in Wisconsin?" was too provocative for a few potential readers–who appear not to have noticed the question mark. It was NOT my intention to encourage anyone to see Egypt and Wisconsin (that is, the historical and/or contemporary contexts of these events) as equivalent. To equate what the people of Egypt suffered under Mubarak with efforts to undermine or eliminate labor rights in the USA would be to trivialize the brutality and torture of dissidents in Egypt–and the poverty of most Egyptians. I would never do that. I have lived in a dictatorship (Idi Amin’s Uganda), fearing for the safety of my family and friends.

Of special interest then, is this item in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Egypt, Madison Link Flawed, Student Says" (4). It is whether there is anyone else with about the experience of Alex Hanna, co-president of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s TAA (Teaching Assistants Association), which functions as a bargaining unit. Hanna was in the thick of events in Madison, even sleeping in the Capitol, but he had witnessed events in Cairo just prior to returning to the Madison campus. He was in Cairo doing research for a master’s thesis on how social media enable communication in regimes that restrict political speech and activism. He cites major differences between Madison and Cairo but also points out that in both cases social media played a role–though somewhat differently.

What is significant, however, is the "cognitive connectivity" that we can observe as dissident or disgruntled citizens in what may be very different contexts observe the outcome of protests in one context and apply it their own circumstances (*). The young man carrying the "Walk Like an Egyptian" sign had connected the dots in a cognitive/neurological process and his sign was the external manifestation of this process. To understand his behavior we need to take into account links that, viewed more objectively, may be "flawed." Of course, for teachers this provides an opportunity to engage students in a broad discussion of "people power" and its limitations. No doubt the discussion would pivot around the differences between protests here and abroad.

Relevant to the kind of connectivity I’ve been thinking about is Richard Grusin’s notion of "premediation." He examines how today’s news and social media prepare audiences psychologically for multiple possibilities in the future. In his new book, Premediation: Affect and Mediality After 9/11, he describes the impact of the anticipation elicited by social media during the 2009 election protests in Iran (*). In yesterday’s Lake Effect program he considers the way in which premediation is occurring in both Egypt and Madison.

• Lake Effect (3-1-2011): "Premediation: Reporting on Tomorrow Today" (16:19). Stephanie Lecci interview with Richard Grusin. URL: http://www.wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/view_le.php?articleid=1188

Grusin suggests that one of Egypt’s effects has been an intensified sense of hopefulness among protesters in Madison. Disgruntled people in Wisconsin, after seeing and hearing--with unprecedented immediacy--what was happening in Egypt, were psychologically prepared to act. While he thinks Wisconsinites would have protested regardless of what was happening elsewhere, he suggests that the structure and intensity would have been different without "premediation." Grusin, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Professor of English, directs UWM’s Center for 21^st Century Studies.

In addition, Chinese dissidents have observed the protests across the Arab world and tried to emulate them by calling for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China (see NYT 2-20/21-11). The response of Chinese officials, including the arrest of human rights activists, indicates how seriously the government is taking attempts to use social media to call for protests that might create instability (6). Despite the government’s surveillance of social media, it seems that Grusin’s "premediation" is also operating in the Chinese context.

Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, when citizens there (no doubt, including quite a few dissidents,) gathered to watch Al Jazeera and BBC videos of events in Egypt, the police arrived and seized their equipment (laptop, DVDs, projector) and took 46 of them into custody. Those detained were charged with "attempting to overthrow the government by unconstitutional means" and face up to twenty years in prison (7).

For those who have been wondering why people in sub-Saharan are not rising up against tyrants ... just wait. Listen to Trevor Ncube, owner of independent newspapers in Zimbabwe and The Mail & Guardian (a major South African paper): "Indeed the single most important lesson frojm Tunisia and Egypt is that we as Zimbabweans are our own liberators" (8).

I strongly recommend that you access the original Ncube article and also read the comments. Ncube asserts that events in Tunisia and Zimbabwe "certainly planted ideas in Zimbabweans’ minds that may influence the country’s future in a significant way." This supports my argument about "cognitive connectivity" and Grusin’s notion of "premediation." But, as Ncube points out, "Zimbabwe’s political predicament is far worse" and this, of course, goes far in explaining Zimbabweans’ reluctance to rise up and overthrow Mugabe (though protests have occurred–and politicians, lawyers, and human rights activists have been arrested and sometimes brutally beaten or tortured). Very candidly, Ncube describes what people in Zimbabwe are facing, the entrenched power of Mugabe’s regime. The comments reveal even more. Share this unique primary source with your students.

Notes

1) See also Michael Fletcher, "Wisconsin Gov. Walker Threatens to Trigger Layoffs for Thousands of Public Workers, Washington Post (2-26-2011). From this article access video, "Wis. Legislation Sparks Country-wide Protests" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022507027.html).

2) DISCLOSURE: I have a vintage AT-AT Imperial Walker in my basement (keeping it for my son, who turns 36 this month).

3) Protesters in Columbus, Ohio have also alluded to the Egyptian revolution. See "After Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana Face Union Fight," New York Times (2-23-11).

4) Craig Gilbert, "Egypt, Madison Link Flawed, Student Says," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3-2-2010).

5) Richard Grusin, Premediation: Affect and Mediality After 9/11(Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Available in hardcover and paperback.

6) Andrew Jacobs, "Chinese Government Responds to Call for Protests," New York Times (2-21-2011).

7) Celia W. Dugger, "TV Viewing Leads to Zimbabwe Arrests," New York Times (2-22-2011).

8) Quoted in Celia W. Dugger (see note 7). For the original article see "We Are Our Own Liberators," The Guardian & Mail (2-28-2011). URL: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2011-02-18-we-are-our-own-liberators/