Stop the Lies: No to Austerity, No to Wars

I just returned from Madison, Wisconsin. The assault on the working class there is about much more than taking away workers’ rights to represent themselves and to demand fair compensation for their labor. It is a full assault on the lives of working families and on all but the richest people in Wisconsin. Jobs will be cut. Pensions will be cut. Health care and education will be cut. The state will be sold off in piecemeal fashion to the highest bidders as families will struggle to feed and house themselves. More and more will be given to the rich as the rest will face austerity measures.

It is all based on lies. The state has a solid pension fund and the deficit was largely created through recent tax breaks for the wealthy. (See http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/02/unions_arent_to_blam...)

What is happening in Wisconsin and across the nation is the result of decades of planning by those who represent concentrated corporate power and the military-industrial complex. It is the final grab while there is anything left to grab. We face more difficult days ahead.

I also witnessed in Madison a tremendous awareness by the people there. They see the attack and are responding. Thousands gathered on short notice to march in an evening “No Concession Funeral Procession” to the state capitol. I met with doctors and medical students who have been participating in solidarity actions with the workers and organizing to save public health programs.

America is awakening. This is the time to close down our military presence around the world and end the killing of innocent families abroad. It is time to bring our people and dollars home. It is time to end the wars on the poor and working families here.

It will take a massive uprising of people to manifest our demand to end all wars abroad and at home. I look to the veterans to lead this uprising.

A woman in Madison who has cancer and is facing the loss of access to medical treatment put it so clearly: “It doesn’t matter if you are died by a bullet or died by a policy, it is still murder.” We cannot allow these murders to continue.

Join me and others in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 19. Let us stand together to say no to wars and yes to the great community that we can be. Tens of thousands have gathered in Madison each Saturday. Let’s make the same happen in D.C.!

www.stopthesewars.org