Wisconsin Recall: Democrats paved the way for Walker’s victory


A mass party of the working class is urgently needed in the USA

George Martin Fell Brown and Richard Payton, Socialist Alternative, USA

A little over a year ago, the working people of Wisconsin made history when they took to the streets in protest against the union-busting agenda of the right-wing Republican governor Scott Walker. Walker’s infamous Act 10 froze wages, increased state workers’ pension and health contributions and stripped workers of their union collective bargaining rights.

The mass popular uprising that shook the state in February and March of 2011 gave way to a massive recall campaign in which Walker became only the third governor in US history to face a recall.

On 5 June 2012 a footnote was added to the pages of history when Walker became the first governor to survive a recall election, defeating his Democrat opponent Tom Barrett 54% to 46%, a wider margin than his initial election victory in 2010.

Many activists around the state are understandably disheartened by the fact that what began last year as a powerful mass movement involving rallies of tens of thousands, occupations and sick-outs, has in the end led to Walker remaining in office. The right will undoubtedly take the election results as a mandate for further attacks on working people.

The blame for this lies with the leadership of the trade unions and the politicians of the Democratic party, who diverted a mass movement of the working class into an electoral battle between the two parties of big business. To prevent future defeats, it is vital that workers learn the lessons of the Wisconsin recall and break from the two-party system.

The popular energy present last spring, both in Madison and all over the state, carried the potential for real, progressive change. Many of the protesters involved were experiencing their first taste of direct political activity, and countless Wisconsinites threw themselves into the grassroots, on-the-ground work of the recall campaign.

At the time, the recall, which would not have been even a possibility without the protests of February and March, was presented by the union leadership and state Democratic politicians as the only way forward for the movement. These activists’ enthusiasm and zeal is evidenced by the nearly one million signatures supporting the recall of the governor gathered around the state in just a few months.

No alternative

Of course, Walker’s attacks on workers, students, women, the poor and the elderly are terrible, and he deserves to be removed from office for them. However, the Democratic party and its candidate, Tom Barrett, failed to provide any real alternative.

As mayor of Milwaukee, Barrett himself made use of Walker’s infamous anti-labour Act 10 to extract concessions from municipal workers under his control. On the campaign trail Barrett put forward virtually no argument in the face of Walker’s austerity programme, instead stating that he wouldn’t increase taxes on big business and the rich. Essentially, Barrett turned his back on the mass movement that made his re-match against Walker possible in the first place.

To top it all off, while Walker was receiving countless unimaginably large donations from various right-wing foundations and tycoons around the country, the Democratic National Committee refused to put any resources whatsoever into the recall effort.

Some commentators defended Barrett’s right-wing politics as necessary to win over moderate “swing voters.” For instance, former Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz endorsed Barrett, arguing: “A candidate beholden to big unions is no more appealing to independent voters than one who answers to the Koch brothers.” [The Koch brothers control the second largest, multi-billion dollar, privately-owned US company]

But Barrett’s embrace of austerity and “shared sacrifice” served to legitimise Walker’s agenda. Accepting that public sector workers needed to pay for the crisis only reinforced the right-wing propaganda that unions are only interested in taking their members’ money and funding Democrats. This played a key role in allowing Walker to win the election even after the winter protests.

In the heat of the February and March 2011 protests, the workers of Wisconsin held the possibility of imminent victory in their hands. Tens of thousands of people converged on Madison to march and rally, but weeks of protests had shown that Walker was not going to back down just in the face of demonstrations.

The idea of strike action was widely discussed within the movement. A one-day public sector general strike, combined with a solid occupation of the Capitol, mass demonstrations, direct action and student walkouts could have been an inspiring launch pad for a serious strategy to defeat Walker.

However, even when faced with the dismantling of public sector unions in Wisconsin, the state-level union leadership continually shied away from strike action, diverting the movement into the ‘safe’ channel of the recall.

Recall strategy

Socialist Alternative warned at the time that the recall strategy was not as “safe” as the union leaders made it out to be. We said: “It will not be enough to stop Walker and his corporate offensive. A recall will take months, a year or more (nor is there any guarantee of victory). But that won’t stop the immediate impact of this disastrous bill as public sector unions now face the danger of being dismantled in the coming weeks.”

Unfortunately, our warning proved correct. While the unions devoted countless resources to the Democratic Party, union membership has declined in the face of Walker’s legislation.

Since the passage of Act 10, state-wide membership in the American Federation of Teachers has declined from 17,000 to 11,000 and state-wide membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has declined from 62,818 to 28,745.

This crisis would still exist even if Barrett had won. Now, more than ever, the labour movement needs to rebuild its membership and stop the attacks coming from Democrats and Republicans alike. It’s up to the rank and file to organise on the shop floor in every workplace to challenge their own leadership as well as the right-wing politicians.

Ultimately, for labour to succeed it needs to break from the two-party system. While the Democratic and Republican Parties may not be exact clones, they both represent the interests of big business and can’t be relied on as allies of working people.

During the recall election, Socialist Alternative called for the labour movement and activist groups to run independent, pro-worker candidates. If all the effort that unions and activists put behind Barrett had gone to a candidate who genuinely represented the interests of workers, the outcome could have been different.

A candidate who unequivocally defended the interests of all working people, public and private sector, union and non-union, would have been able to win over “swing voters” far more easily than Barrett’s slogan of “Scott Walker is too extreme for Wisconsin.” Even if Walker still won the recall election, this political independence would have put the unions in a much better position to resist his attacks.

What we need is a new political party that refuses to take corporate money, is democratically controlled by its members, and fights determinedly for the interests of the working class majority on the issues of jobs, wages, benefits, health care, social programmes, housing, war, discrimination, and the environment.

In the past, workers have created parties like this in countries around the world. There are now two corporate parties in the US. Why shouldn’t we, as working people, have one of our own?


The Battle of Wisconsin – History and lessons from the working-class revolt of 2011
Pamphlet by George Martin Fell Brown

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