Indiana Dep. Prosecutor Suggests Fake Shooting to Discredit Unions

Indiana Deputy Prosecutor Carlos F. Lam suggested to Wisconsin Gov. Rick Scott that he use provocateurs to discredit the unions protesting his union busting bills. Lam even went so far as to propose a fake assassination attempt against Scott. According to the WSWS, Lam’s email was sent the same day that Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Cox sent a Twitter message calling on Scott to use live ammunition against demonstrators. Both Cox and Lam resigned after journalists traced the provocative messages to them.

As crazy as these two provocations may seem, Walker was already thinking along those same lines. He had already threatened to call in the National Guard on public sector workers if they went on strike. The National Guard, of course, carries live ammunition with them. Furthermore, in a telephone conversation with a blogger pretending to be billionaire David Koch, Walker admitted that he had considered using provocateurs against demonstrators.

The WSWS suggests that such conspiracies are usually reserved for wartime and counterinsurgency operations. However, the U.S. government and business have a long history of using whatever means necessary to disrupt labor organizing and political opposition. Anti-war organizations, civil rights groups, environmental groups AND labor have been infiltrated by provocateurs and spies bent on disrupting and discrediting them. Nevertheless, the WSWS is correct that these two examples are emblematic of the explosive class tensions permeating the country today, with harassed and beaten-down workers on the one hand, desperately fighting to save what little protections they have left, and the ruling elite, on the other hand, hell bent on crushing every last vestige of organized labor.

Click here to see news coverage on Youtube

Growing Trouble in the Middle West

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

While Wisconsin has been getting all of the press lately, attacks on workers and their unions are escalating across the country, with resistance also growing. On Monday, 10,000 workers demonstrated at Indiana’s statehouse against a range of anti-worker bills before the legislature.

The laws would make Indiana a “right-to-work” state (AKA Right to Work for Less), which would lower wages and gut bargaining rights for many public and private sector workers, including teachers. Despite the protests and testimony by workers against the bill, the Indiana House labor committee voted 8-5 to send the bill to the full house for approval.

Current law requires non-union contractors to pay union scale wages. The new laws would ban this, creating an incentive for contractors to hire non-union labor and lower their wages in order to win low-ball bids. The laws would also prevent teachers from bargaining on anything but wages and benefits, destroying their due process rights in disciplinary matters and eliminating the right to bargain on working conditions issues like class size.

Meanwhile, Ohio’s right-wing governor, John Kasich, is leading efforts to demolish his state’s public employee unions. Under the proposed laws, salary schedules and step systems would be replaced by “merit pay” for many state workers and they would also lose the right to bargain for their health care plans and would have to pay at least 20 percent of the cost. The state would be able to terminate or renegotiate contracts in the case of “fiscal emergencies,” such as their current $8 billion deficit.

Like virtually all politicians (state and federal), Kasich has promised to balance his budget without raising taxes, even after providing the rich with numerous tax breaks. This means making everyone but the richest 10% pay for the budget crisis through pay and benefits cuts, slashing of social programs, and eviscerating workers’ ability to fight back. To achieve the latter goal, Kasich has announced that he wants to ban public employee strikes.

Name-Calling From the Left Doesn't Help

I like Jim Horn’s wit, and his empathy for students and teachers certainly come from a good heart. But when he resorts to the same kind of shock jock name calling of his pet bogeymen, (e.g., Beck and Limbaugh, et al) he insults and potentially turns off many of the same regular folk who we need on our side in the fight against the corporatization of the public sector.

Today he justifiably went after Indiana’s Mitch Daniels, but unjustifiably attacked its poor white rural residents as “hate-filled Indiana hillbillies who get lathered up daily watching Fox and listening to Clear Channel.” Certainly we should be concerned about the near monopoly on public opinion held by right-wing media, but it is overly simplistic to blame them for Americans’ misdirected anger. If our unions were doing their jobs, people would be much better organized and educated about working class issues. They’d have a sense of solidarity and, instead of only 9% of the workforce being unionized, virtually all workers would be members of unions and willing to fight to defend their interests. However, it is also simplistic to blame the bureaucratic and collaborationist mainstream unions. They have been failing to do their jobs, but they have also been hamstrung by years of anti-labor legislation and court rulings.

It is also overly simplistic to blame the media for people’s understanding of the world and their attitudes about it. This notion is particularly shocking to come from an educator who surely understands that learning does not occur simply by funneling facts (or propaganda) into the ears of learners. People construct their knowledge and understanding based on prior knowledge, preconceived notions, social and cultural attitudes and world views. Much of the hate-filled propaganda of Fox and Clear Channel (as well as the less hateful stuff on NBC, CBS and ABC) is consistent with the delusional American Dream fantasy and Protestant notions of work and personal responsibility and therefore easy to swallow for many viewers. It is also much easier to hate and attack those who are your equals than to go after the big boys (i.e., ruling elite) who have all the guns and money on their side.

Then there’s Horn’s disdain for fat people.

I agree with him the Chris Christie is a nasty, dangerous bone head, but it is completely unnecessary and gratuitous to attack his body as he did in New Jersey’s Fat-Headed Governor, calling him “lard ass,” and a “morbidly obese loud-mouthed bully,” the latter insult he repeated here, and here. He loves this insult so much that he used it against Rush Limbaugh, too. Rhetoric like this makes Horn sound like the demagogues he hates, and has the potential to turn off the 63% of Americans who are overweight, many of whom are teachers and students.

Indiana’s Failing Charter Schools

Indiana has 62 free, public charter schools, enrolling nearly 23,000 students. Nearly 40 of these schools are authorized by Ball State University. 23% of them are currently on probation by the university, 10% have either withdrawn their charter or had it revoked by the university, and 9 are on probation for failing to make adequate yearly progress under NCLB.