Barack Obama: MIA in Labor's Struggle

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Barack-Obama-MIA-in-Labor-by-Walter-Brasch-110318-58.html

By Walter Brasch

As expected, Michael Moore, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka were in Madison, Wisc., to support and rally the workers in their fight against the union-busting governor and Republican-dominated state legislature.

But, so were union members Bradley Whitfield, Susan Sarandon, Tony Shaloub, and dozens of musicians and singers, including Peter Yarrow who, as part of Peter, Paul, and Mary, was at almost every major social protest for more than 40 years.

"This is not merely a protest on the steps of the Capitol here in Madison," said Shalhoub, "this is the birth of . . . a nationwide movement destined to restore the rights of workers, to safeguard quality education for our children and to reassemble and reconstitute the fragmented and wounded middle class." Shalhoub, who won three Emmys, was born in Green Bay; his sister is a Wisconsin teacher.

"Workers," Sarandon told a crowd of almost 100,000, "had to organize, go on strike, defy the law, defy the courts to create a movement which won the eight-hour workday and caused such a commotion that Congress was forced to pass a minimum wage law, Social Security, unemployment insurance and the right to assemble in collective bargaining."

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) told thousands of cheering protestors they had to "reclaim the essence of economic justice before it is lost on the corporate scaffold." Former senator Russ Feingold, the only senator brave enough to oppose the PATRIOT Act when it was created, said the actions of the governor and legislature were "an outrageous assault on working people."

FULL story at link.

[pnwmom]

1. A significant fraction of these union workers are Republicans -- at least, until this

happened -- and don't want this to turn into a political battle.

And the best way to appeal to them in the long run, and maybe to gain their lifelong support, is to not rub the politics of this in their faces by having Obama there.

[silver10]

2. Obama doesn't want to offend his "new base"

the moderate republicans. I don't get his way of thinking because if you lean to the right, why not vote for what is "as advertised?"

Obama ran under false pretenses as far as I am concerned - I'd like to sue him for false propaganda. War monger, corporate-top 1% appeaser and anti-labor/middle class.

[applegrove]

3. The Unions in charge of WI protests asked him not to attend. It would take

away from the start of a grassroots movement of people across the country realizing what the gop is all about. Obama was smart to stay away.

[silver10]

4. Sure, that's it.

[applegrove]

5. I wish I had that link to show ya!

[silver10]

6. We all have links to show each other our way of thinking, I have them too.