US, Report From Right To Work for Less Protest in Michigan by David - First of May Anarchist Alliance

I started the day feeling pessimistic about what would happen and even though on the 
whole, people came, yelled and then went home, I was a lot more encouraged by the days 
events than I thought I?d be. ---- That said, let me be clear that this is an accounting 
of the days events and not any sort of feeling of victory or satisfaction with the 
business unions? approach or their marriage to the democratic party. This is an attempt to 
describe what I was seeing glimpses of, piece that are present, just below the surface in 
spite of the unions? backwards ways. ---- This bill is only possible because most of the 
unions have not been organizing, have been acting in the interests of the bosses as much 
as in the interests of workers and have wed themselves almost completely to the democratic 
party, who hasn?t really given them a thing in several decades.

I don?t dispute any of that and have had my share of experiences with unions that make me 
sick to my stomach. That said, I think it is incorrect to write them off as obsolete, 
having run their course or irrelevant. The hundreds of thousands of people who participate
in their unions, despite their problems don?t think so and I think it is a mistake to 
dismiss those sentiments and commitments. That was demonstrated pretty well in what I saw 
on Tuesday.

Report From Right To Work for Less Protest

RtW Poem by Miriam of M1 12-12-12

Michigan now
RTW (for less) state
Right to Work
Right to Weasel
Right to War
On the Working Class

Workers!
Stand up!
Vote with your feet.

You already voted
Waited in long lines
to vote for

one or the other

spender of billions

while we children

hungry

no toilet paper

in the fire stations

or schools.

Time to strike

Time to organize

Time to go to meetings
Time to talk with your neighbor
your friend your family your peeps
Time to stand up

What do we need
And how can we
go about getting it

Time to
Vote with your feet.

12-11-12 Lansing, Michigan Report by M1 member David

15,000 people gathered at the Lansing Capitol to protest the Right to Work for Less bill

Background:

Brief explanation of how ridiculously inaccurate it is to call this a right to work bill here

The bill is a lot more than just making Michigan the 24th right to work state, it has a
number of things included that no one yet knows what there effects will be. This may have 
had something to do with it never making it out of committee but was added as an amendment 
to an appropriations bill and voted on the same day it was proposed. Since it is part of 
an appropriations bill, it cannot be overturned by referendum. For a full text of the bills.

This is one of several things happening in the Michigan Legislature this week. There is 
also a bill designed to prevent access to abortion by changing the rules about a range of
things including the square footage requirements of reproductive health clinics.

The emergency manager law implemented two years ago by Rick Snyder, was partially 
overturned by a ballot proposal in November where people voted to strike down the law. 
Barely a month later, the legislature approved a new law that does the same thing as the 
old one, but offers ?choices? on how it will be implemented. Don?t worry though since 
every choice is not really a choice at all.

Tuesday?s Events

Based on what had happened in the week preceding the protest, I was very worried that the 
mainstream unions will simply show up, yell all day and then calmly leave. Had that been 
the extent of their mobilization along with promising to ?punish? the republicans in the 
2014, then everyone, union or not, needs to make it clear that those are pitiful responses 
to this clear attack on working people, and that we demand more from those who say they 
act in our interest while giving only lip service to actually doing anything about it that 
matters. If the unions are going to fight, great. But we need to understand that there 
must also be a fight back that comes from regular people, union or not, that have ideas 
for ways forward beyond waiting for crumbs from politicians and union bureaucrats alike.

This flyer sums up what we should be expecting from anything calling itself a union or an 
organization fighting in workers? interests. I handed out about 300 of these at the 
protest and had decent response.
Unions that Fight
In trying to connect the attack on workers with the attacks on
women?s reproductive rights, the backside of the flyer had this to say.

I started the day feeling pessimistic about what would happen and even though on the 
whole, people came, yelled and then went home, I was a lot more encouraged by the days 
events than I thought I?d be.

That said, let me be clear that this is an accounting of the days events and not any sort 
of feeling of victory or satisfaction with the business unions? approach or their marriage 
to the democratic party. This is an attempt to describe what I was seeing glimpses of, 
piece that are present, just below the surface in spite of the unions? backwards ways.

This bill is only possible because most of the unions have not been organizing, have been 
acting in the interests of the bosses as much as in the interests of workers and have wed 
themselves almost completely to the democratic party, who hasn?t really given them a thing 
in several decades. I don?t dispute any of that and have had my share of experiences with 
unions that make me sick to my stomach. That said, I think it is incorrect to write them 
off as obsolete, having run their course or irrelevant. The hundreds of thousands of 
people who participate in their unions, despite their problems don?t think so and I think 
it is a mistake to dismiss those sentiments and commitments. That was demonstrated pretty 
well in what I saw on Tuesday.

What I Saw

-The shear number of people who were very clearly working class and pissed off was 
surprising. That doesn?t mean it will translate into meaningful action but the variation 
of people there willing to act beyond just showing up was worth noting. There was a mood 
to the protest that went beyond passively pleading for things and more of a tone of, we 
know you are going to do this and fuck you. From the start they were setting the tone that 
it was not a day to push people around, be it police or the 20 or so people from Americans 
for Prosperity, the Koch brothers backed organization pushing the right to work 
legislation. There were two massive event tents set up by Americans for Prosperity on the 
lawn of the capitol, both of which were ripped down within 20 minutes. A fox news reporter 
attempting to provoke some union folks didn?t have to wait long before getting punched in 
the face. Attempts by the police to move the crowd early on, with either lines of riot 
police or police on horses, were simply out flanked and out numbered and they would try 
for a while but then retreat. I don?t want to over do this point but it wasn?t just a 
couple of groups going through the crowd having confrontations with police. A broad range 
of people, most of the time being different groupings altogether sat down en mass in the 
capitol mezzanine against police orders and stayed for several hours; Several attempts to 
break through police lines were met with pepper spray and baton jabs; 200-300 folks locked 
down in the Romney office building where the governors office is, 50 or so of which were 
drug out one at a time; while not overt street fights, there were multiple clashes with 
police lines with people charging their lines lines; The only exit for the governors car 
was blocked and was only cleared by 60-80 police marching in formation down the streets 4
lines deep. This push took place at dusk, long after the union leadership and police had 
told everyone to go home, and there were still several thousand people in the street.

-There was still the idle threats to ?punish? the republicans in the 2014 elections. While 
in the week leading up to tuesday, that had been stated a lot, it was mostly being said by 
union staffer types who were a tiny minority on tuesday as compared to earlier in the 
week. So with a much more rank-n-file character to the crowd, I heard that argument much 
less than I thought I would.

-The police presence and attitude was way over the top with lines of riot police and 
openly admitting to there being under cover officers in the crowd. Its a good time to 
mention that the right to work for less bill applies to public and private employees in 
michigan EXCEPT for police and fire fighters.

Excellent photo slideshow of to demonstrate how aggressive the cops were

Several times throughout the day, the police marched through the crowd in highly 
militarized formations with riot cops in front and then some sort of tactical team at the 
rear carrying tear gas launchers and 2 ft long super sized pepper spray canisters. 
Intimidation or justifying the cost are the only possible reasons for sending these 
formations into the crowd.

While there was the occasional plea to the police to stand in solidarity with us, by and 
large the crowd was angry and screaming at the cops. An anti-cop sentiment was largely 
embraced with, ?Get the Fuck out of here? and ?Scab? being pretty common things to hear. A 
line had been drawn for many that attended, a line that placed the police firmly on the 
wrong side of things and as little more than thugs of the government. Considering the 
crowd, I was surprised to hear people berating the cops and in actions of a similar 
groupings of people, I was expecting a much more lenient attitude toward the police.

-Though the protest was focused on the right to work legislation, a healthy portion of the 
crowd sported ?i stand with planned parenthood? stickers that were being handed out. There 
seemed to be a pretty broad understanding that these two fights should be linked and that 
they were both part of a broader attack on regular people. This was a surprise.

It could have been a lot better

-No real attempt was made to hold the capitol in the style of the Wisconsin occupation, 
which was disappointing and could have been done if the people there wanted to take it. 
This was a missed opportunity.

-There was not much in the conversations that I had that demonstrated people were thinking 
beyond the union members and about the broader mass of people struggling right now.

-The union approved speakers were not generally getting much support or attention, but 
were not being openly disagreed with. The ones I heard sounded pretty out of touch, and 
reinforced my feeling that they don?t have much of a plan to fight back beyond the 2014 
elections, which is disgusting to say the least.

-Information flowed only one way, union leadership to the rank-n-file and not the other
way around.

I do not have a good sense of what is going to come next. It was clear to me that a range 
of people attending the protest felt like the right to work attack was a game changer for 
unions and that they needed to change their response. What that looks like and whether it 
will have the potential to actually fight back in a meaningful way remains to be seen. 
While the mainstream union?s next steps are up to them, here are some ideas that can be up 
to us.

********text from right to work protest flyer*****************

We Need Unions that Fight!

The Republican attempts to weaken and restrict Unions in Michigan are an attack on the 
entire working-class and must be resisted. The best way to fight is through mass direct 
action with rank & file workers (unionized and not) in the driver?s seat. This is how the 
Unions were built and many victories won.

We need:

Unions that are democratic with horizontal structures controlled by the rank & file workers
Independence from the political parties, the bosses, and the police
Solidarity with the entire working-class, including those most marginalized and excluded:

single moms; immigrants; prisoners; minimum wage workers; our people in the ghettos, 
barrios, trailer parks and reservations

Methods of struggle that make us stronger and can get the goods: direct action, 
occupations, mass picketing, and the General Strike
An understanding that we are not up against just a few bad bosses or politicians, but an 
entire system? capitalism ? built on the exploitation of working-class people and the Earth

While the GOP is brazenly open in their hostility and hatred for working people, they are 
not alone in seeking to control the Labor Movement. The Democratic Party also seeks to 
render the Unions harmless by co-opting them as an arm of their electoral machine, or 
giving the Unions a ?seat at the table? only to take more cuts and concessions.

This 1-2 punch has left the Unions weak and on the defensive. It has promoted a ruling 
bureaucracy within the Unions that sees its interests as bound up closer with the bosses 
and politicians than with us rank & file workers. For the most part we workers and union
members have been too complacent in allowing the Labor leaders to pursue this failed 
course. Where we have stood up, the undemocratic structures within the unions have stifled 
resistance.

But things are beginning to change. The 2011 mass movement in Wisconsin included mass 
sick-outs by the teachers, an occupation of the Capitol, and popular sentiment for a 
General Strike. The Occupy movement a year later popularized the anger we all feel toward 
the capitalist elite, brought hundreds of thousands out into the streets, and with port 
workers shut down the West Coast ports.

Let?s start building where we are ? in our workplaces, communities and Unions ? and make 
connections with those who feel the same need for a new kind of labor movement ? or you 
could say, an old kind of labor movement ? a revolutionary movement.

We need a revolutionary labor movement!

Related Link: http://m1aa.org/?p=583