First the artifically created scarcity was blindingly obvious. There was no budget deficit until Walker got elected and gave a bunch of tax breaks to the rich, which then created a deficit, which then had to be paid for by cutting wages/benefits for govt employees. The obscenity of this move was sufficently stark that everybody could see it.
Second the outright attack on the ability of workers to fight back by taking way bargaining rights. First I break your legs and then I gag you so you can't scream about it.
And then the upswell in support, first in Wisconsin, then in the U.S., then globally, was swift and unprecedented.
Finally, the cops would not follow orders!!!!
It was like a Greek tragedy in the articulation of its phases and the reverberation of each act. In the U.S., it starts with Wisconsin.
Joanna
----- Original Message ----- From: "Joseph Catron" <jncatron at gmail.com>
Carrol keeps coming back to this point, and I still can't make heads or tails of it. Wisconsin was great, but what was it except a localized reflection of Tahrir Square, and Tunisia's Dignity Revolution before it? It's kind of silly to try tracing these thing - Tunisia certainly had plenty of precedents and inspirations, inside the Arab world and out of it - but if you're looking for a recent fuse, it was lit on December 17, in Sidi Bouzid, by Mohamed Bouazizi.
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað." ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk